Where We Find Ourselves
by lilskippy
Summary: IIt's a galaxy far, far away. Faith's gone from prison to the scrappy ranks of the Rebellion. There's a chance to be a hero. There's Darth Vader. Boba Fett. Jedis. Until Buffy comes along in a metal bikini to make everything more complicated.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So here we are! I thought I might try to write another and then post it after finishing, but it turns out that, without the pressures of a waiting audience (hopefully), I move at something approaching glacial speed. So here I am posting the first of this new story. I'll say at the outset that I'm assuming a fair amount of familiarity with the Star Wars movies, in the interests of moving the story along more quickly. I'll also note that this story begins roughly where Star Wars (Episode IV) begins. I've seen a number of other stories that seem to begin back with the prequels. Just call me old-school. I still remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theaters (not the first two...I'm not that old, people). Finally, I'll say that we'll be focusing on Faith quite a bit at the beginning, but who knows...others may show up down the line. (winks) As always, feedback is greatly appreciated...craved, in fact, this early into a story. I hope you enjoy!

The usual disclaimers about owning nothing related to Buffy or Star Wars. Imitation (with credit) is the sincerest form of flattery.

* * *

A cry, cut off in the middle.

Her eyes blinked open into sand.

Sand?

Blinking again. More sand. Golden and hot. In her eyes. From somewhere close: barking. But not like a dog.

Then an enormous wooly foot stomping down next to her face.

Foot? Scrambling backwards from it. Other, smaller feet in leather boots, shuffling around. Kicking up the sand. Hands grabbing at her.

That got her moving. Eyes still not fully adjusted to the bright, sitting up in the sand to bat those hands away. That sharp bark of noise again. Leather, hair, sand—brown, all of it.

The sudden, crisp efficiency of a video game's laser gunfire.

Shapes around her disappearing with the fading echo of that sound, leaving her alone with the long, slim indentation next to her, now filling with shifting sands. All she could do was stare at it. There was something she was not quite getting….

"We should move inside. The sand people may be easily startled, but they will return soon. With others."

"Wha—?" Faith whirled around to the voice behind her. "Who the fuck are you?"

The man threw the brown hood back from his face, raising an eyebrow in an old and graying face. "Why? Are you looking for someone?"

Faith snorted. "Yeah, that's clearly what I'm doin' in the middle of the god-knows-where desert—" She looked down at herself. "—all naked and shit. Just misplaced my fuckin' yellow pages."

The eyebrow stayed up. "The why and the how of it—" He nodded at her clothes-less state, holding out his brown robe. "—that I cannot say. As for the where, you've found yourself in the Jundland Wastes." He noted her blank face, going on. "A no-man's-land that passes for variation here amidst the dunes for which Tatooine is known."

"Tattoo-what?" Faith looked around her, taking in again the canyon, the rocky floor of it, the hazy sky above. She rubbed at her eyes, squinting up again. "And where the hell did the second sun come from?"

"Tatooine." He corrected her with another raised eyebrow, his face otherwise mild, unreadable. "Which orbits those twin suns."

"Oh, fuck me."

* * *

"I could just take off with your man-robe, ya know." They were walking briskly from dune to canyon. The older man's robe hung off Faith's shoulders, cinched around the middle. She felt her feet burning on the sand. "I mean, you don't know me from shit."

At her words, he glanced over. "Do you mean to warn me that you're the sort of person who would run away?" She turned away from his stare, and he surveyed the desolation around them, a glimmer of amusement twitching at the corner of his mouth. "Of course, if you wish to go, you are always free to do that. And if you wish to tell me who you are, then I'm sure that you will do that as well."

A flash of the hard prison bedding. Bars, some far off metal clanging. Staring up at that pock-marked ceiling. How long since, not thinking one night, she'd etched the letter "B" in it with the cruelly sharpened end of a toothbrush? She'd had to wrench that makeshift weapon out of her former cellmate's hand when that girl had come at her one night for some perceived insult—or maybe a legitimate one, maybe nothing at all. Not so much different from slaying really…the everyone-out-to-get-you part.

Yeah, she wasn't really jumping to tell anyone about any of it.

"Just my luck, a fuckin' philosopher." She paused, eyeing him. "I'm Faith. And you aren't British, are you?" His face was blank. She sniffed. "I guess that's good, then." She squinted into the suns. Sand-tastic afterlife, but one good thing: "Least there won't be a Council climbing up my—"

She couldn't get the whole sentence out before that same barking sound from earlier echoed a short distance away. Her head shot up, listening. He listened as well.

"Sand people. Sooner than we thought. And it sounds as though they might have found something—or someone—else of interest."

She heard his words behind her. She was already running in that direction.

* * *

"You think you're scarin' me?"

One of the sand people rose up, brandishing its spear with a prolonged bark, attempting to do just that. Faith stood her ground and snapped off a side kick that caught him square in the open jaw, smashing it back closed. The others had already fled. It reeled, but swung that spear around anyway. It missed her head completely as she danced to one side, smiling.

"Even Giles coulda gotten clear of that—oof!"

It caught her mid-taunt with a jab to the midsection. Right about where that scar was.

"Hey!" She punched out for its…nose? "No interrupting!" It staggered back. A quick hook kick, and its neck was broken. It slumped into a loose brown pile in the brown dirt of the brown planet.

At least some things hadn't changed. She still had it.

Faith looked up, eyes lit up, finding the old man staring alternately between her and the dead body. She cracked her knuckles, nodding over at what she'd done. "Guess demon's the universal, huh?"

"Demon?"

"Yeah. Not so human. Badness. All that." Her brow furrowed at his lack of understanding or relief. She struggled to explain. "Dunno what word they use in bizarro world."

The old man tried to comprehend, those thoughtful eyes moving between the still form in the dust and the robed brunette digging one toe in the dirt. "Sand people?"

She ran one hand roughly back through her hair, pushing it out of her face. "No, what they _are_." She saw him opening his mouth to say "sand people" again and rushed in to cut him off. "Other than, you know, their name, I mean."

He just raised an eyebrow at her. "Traders? Sometimes participants in the slave market and sometimes violently inclined. Nomads of the desert." He shrugged. "They've been here as long as anyone can remember."

Faith's lips pressed into a line. "Wait…so they're the fuckin' local color?" She didn't even need to wait for his answer for the hissing "shit!" to escape her lips. She looked down at the brown bundle and then slammed her hand into the rock outcropping to her right. Several rocks skittered down at the impact. She picked up one of them and hurled it.

And was promptly met by a loud bleating noise as the rock pinged off a metal dome rolling out from behind a rock.

"It's alright, little friend. You can come here." The old man squatted with his hand out. The thing rolled forward.

"Oh, now this is just gettin' ridiculous! It's a freakin' trashcan. Hey, old guy… you're talkin' to a trash can!"

The old man and trash can both ignored her.

A rapid fire series of beeps. It rolled towards another outcropping, and the figure sprawled out on the ground behind it.

The old man followed, placing a hand on sun-warmed metal as he looked down at the young man all in dusty white: tunic, trousers, and boots. Some sort of utility belt. "Don't worry, he'll be alright."

Faith gave one last glance and muttered rejoinder to the dead sand person—"knew that thing was fuckin' bad news"—then joined them as the young man was coming to.

"Ben? Ben Kenobi? Boy, am I glad to see you!"

Faith looked over, mouthing "Ben?" as if that had been the furthest name from her mind. But before she could say anything, from a distance another voice echoed from the rocks. Clipped accent. A golden, metallic man, holding his severed leg off to one side, wires blooming from the top of the thigh.

"R2? Master Luke?"

Faith rolled her eyes, wondering if the Powers that Be were laughing somewhere. She knew her karma was bound to be on the not-so-great side, but…. "Oh, what, there just _had_ to be somebody British, huh?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Let's bring back the weekly serial! Oh, and credit Beatles for the lyric.

* * *

Faith had it figured that she must be dead…she just hadn't figured out how it had happened. Of course, there were a fair number of ways to die in prison. Not that many weapons, but lots of people clamoring to use them. A shiv in the back in the food line? In her sleep?

Please say she hadn't slipped in the shower and cracked her head open.

And who'd have thought death would turn out so much like one of Xander's wet dreams?

And did Buffy feel it when it happened?

"Mos Eisley Spaceport." The old man's voice pulled Faith out of her reverie just as she was shaking herself back to reality. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

Obi-wan looked at Luke. Luke looked at Faith. Faith gave the unassuming city in the dust a skeptical eyebrow.

"Scum and villainy, huh?" Her eyes were dark and shadowed. "Been there, done that."

Luke furrowed his brow and looked over at Obi-wan. "Why is she going again?"

"Faith can go where she pleases." The old man didn't react to the whine in the young man's voice.

The dark slayer shrugged off Luke's skeptical look. "What? Ain't like I got shit else to do 'round here." She turned to Obi-wan. "Hey, this place we're goin' have sand?"

"Alderaan? It is a much more verdant place."

Faith shrugged and turned back towards the speeder. "Yeah, whatever. Long as it don't have sand, we're good, 'cause the stuff here's kinda gotten in places the sun—or suns or whatever—don't shine, if you get me."

Luke blushed and abruptly turned away from the still-robed girl, his youthful imagination more than adequate to supply what was underneath and what wasn't. He cleared his throat and tried to get on more solid ground, still addressing Obi-wan. "But she's just a girl. And she doesn't know anything about flying or fighting...."

The old man regarded him, holding up a hand to cut him off. "You might find that she surprises you."

Faith snorted under her breath. "Ain't gonna be a surprise like a birthday cake either." She said this half to herself, but noticed the sidelong look she got from Obi-wan for it. She straightened up as she saw Luke open his mouth for another protest. "Look, I saved your ass from those sand things—"

Luke eyes widened. "Sand people? How—?"

But Faith was in no mood for interruption. "And I saw what the capital-E Empire did to those little guys in robes and your aunt and uncle—" She paused, still seeing those twisted bodies. They'd left Obi-wan's hut after the Princess's message and run smack into death. Her mouth sucked dry. She saw Luke's lips press together and wondered whether she should have said that last bit more delicately. Too late now. She plowed on. "—what they did to your family. So I think I got a pretty good bead on where the evil is…just gotta point me at it and shoot."

He snorted. "Great. A loose cannon is really gonna help us save the Princess."

"Hey, I didn't see that the Princess sending her SOS to you, either, buddy-boy. So we'll both be gift-with-purchase."

Luke opened his mouth, but found himself faced with Faith's back as she was already moving back towards the speeder. Obi-wan gave him a half-smile and moved to follow. He reluctantly did the same.

Threepio ambled after, hearing R-2's sequence of beeps. "No, I have no idea who is purchasing what."

A low whistle.

"Yes, I do believe he said 'loose cannon.'"

* * *

"Jesus, demons would have to go for the soft jazz."

They all walked into the smoke-filled bar. The band played in one corner, largely ignored. Large white alien heads. A few things looked up at them as they came in and, deciding there were bigger things to worry about, turned back to their drinks. Luke's eyes widened before he forced them to casually take in the room.

"Demons?" Threepio chimed in from right behind her. "I'm not familiar with that species, and I know over 4.25 million different lifeforms in 15 systems."

"Huh?" Faith threw a glance over her shoulder. "Oh, right." Not demons. Tell that to her slayer-senses, all on alert. Who was she here? "Right…nothing. Just reminiscin'."

That was enough to distract Luke from his attempt to look like he fit in among the seedy crowd. "Hey, where did you say you—?" But he couldn't get it out before the bartender was barking at them.

"We don't serve your kind."

Faith looked up, ready for a fight if somebody tried to throw her out of her own afterlife bar. Obi-wan laid a hand on her arm, lightly, whispering into her ear. "He's not talking to you." He turned back to the droids, still keeping his voice low. "Perhaps the two of you had better…."

Threepio was already stumbling over himself to comply. "But of course!"

Now it was Luke who was grabbing Obi-wan's arm. "But they've got the—" Faith poked him in the side sharply. "Ow! What was that for?"

Faith kept her voice low and her back to the room. "You wanna tell the whole damn freak show here what's inside that glorified trashcan? Smart, real smart." Then to Obi-wan, hooking a grudging thumb over at Luke, who was looking equal parts chastened and vindicated. "But he might be right. Maybe ain't such a good idea to dangle the whole point of this adventure outside like some big shiny bait."

Obi-wan nodded slowly. "Perhaps so."

Faith was less of a thoughtful-nodding person than a get-to-business person. "Right, so we send farmboy out to keep an eye on things—"

"Hey, I'm not waiting outside like some kind of—!"

"Well, nobody said you gotta just stand there! Try not to look conspicuous."

"Oh, and how'm I supposed to do that?"

"You think I know? I don't even know what would count as standing out. This is your world, not mine." She looked around again. "'Course, if this place's any indication, I could probably be naked, wearin' a big fuckin' constrictor all strategically placed and nobody'd notice."

Obi-wan cleared his throat between them and both of them shut up. "Speaking of conspicuousness, perhaps you could attempt to find Faith some more suitable attire, Luke."

She glanced down at the oversized robe she was still wearing. "Ooh, good point, Benji!" As much as Ben really didn't fit the man, Faith didn't know what to make of the name "Obi-wan" either. "Luke can take 'em shopping and pick me up some clothes."

"I don't know what kind of clothes a girl—"

"And I wouldn't know a store 'round here if it bit me in the ass!" She could see he was a hair's breadth away from blowing up and drawing even more attention to them. She tried to take a breath herself, gesturing down at the oversized garment she'd borrowed. "Look, just so long as you don't let Goldenrod here pick anything out, we'll make it work." Threepio straightened up, unsure whether to be offended. Faith paused. "'Course, leather would make it work easier." She got a blank look for her trouble. "You know, hide of animal." She had to stop herself from saying it all slow like he was hard of hearing. She was trying _not_ to antagonize.

Luke rolled his eyes anyway, but slumped off on the errand, dragging the droids with him. Faith ran a hand back through her hair, turned back to the room where they were supposedly going to find a pilot, figured that was Obi-wan's business, and marched straight up to the bar.

"So, can a girl get a drink?"

* * *

The drink, when it came, was gross. And required sipping through a long winding straw. Which generally lessened one's ability to pound it. That is, unless you wanted to look like a fish, all sucky-face.

Faith? Not into fish lips. Or looking stupid. She stared at the strange bottles behind the bar and the weird creatures on the other side of them. She kept to herself and stared and drank stuff that burned going down and, she suspected, would have laid her out had she not been a slayer.

Of course, even for a slayer, she was bound to have a pretty impressive tolerance, given all she'd been through. Time in prison might have taken her down a notch in that department, but she was fairly certain she could still drink Buffy under the table.

"Blonde benchmark even in hell, huh?" A half-laugh slipped out.

"What did you say?"

At the scratchy voice next to her, Faith started, not realizing she'd muttered her comment aloud. She spared a look for the ugly, sort-of-human-looking runt next to her. She could see Obi-wan a little ways behind it, talking to a big man made of hair. She blinked and looked back at the bristling guy on the next bar stool.

"None of yours. Just talkin' to myself." Faith turned back to her drink. Or tried to. Now the guy was grabbing at her arm, swinging her around a little.

"Oh, it's not my business. It's his." Thumb over his shoulder at the dark brown, tusked beast rising up behind him. "It's him you're disturbing."

"Yeah, well, I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob." Faith was off her seat now, eyebrow raised. "This is my hell, so I get to talk to myself any time I want and you can just take your tusks and—"

But both men were already reaching for their blasters and Faith was thinking fast and seeing Obi-wan rushing towards her, flicking his lightsaber on as he came, and she was there first, grabbing both guns by the barrel, tipping them towards the ceiling, then ripping them out of the hands holding them even as one discharged.

Parts of the ceiling drifted down.

The bartender yelled "Take it outside!"

Nobody was inclined to.

Faith heard the hiss of Obi-wan's saber coming down next to her and a scream as the smaller, ugly man's arm came off. Blasters in her hands. She could kill something, easy.

Fumbling, she dropped them on the counter instead, pushing them clumsily out of reach just as the walrus-man lurched towards Obi-wan. And then she let her slayer loose to the thrill of small slayer slamming into larger beast and winning. This is what she was made for! Faith sent him stumbling backwards a good ten feet, then grabbed an arm and swung him around into the wall. He crumpled to the ground, moaning.

She looked at Obi-wan, both of them standing over their respective conquests. They nodded to each other. The room trickled back to sound and life.

"I don't know whether to charge you more or less now."

Faith unclenched her fists and looked over at the man who had walked up, his eyes flicking between Obi-wan's now-sheathed lightsaber and Faith. He looked back at the towering hairy beast that had followed him over. The same Obi-wan had been talking to earlier. It gave a warbling growl, and Faith felt herself tense again. If she had to take on another creature-feature, she could do that.

"Chewie here says there should be a discount for anyone who shows the strength of a Wookie." He looked over both of them again. Faith had the distinct impression that this "Chewie" thing was nodding at her. "But then, this is why Wookies aren't businessmen. Han Solo, at your service." He flashed Faith a rakish grin, eyes flicking ever-so-quickly to the skin showing at the "v" of her robe. Yet another thing that didn't change. Faith smirked, looking him square in the eye. Han was talking to Obi-wan again, but still looking at her. "You said 17,000, right?"

Faith raised an eyebrow, arms folded across her chest. "Oh, it's gonna cost you a lot more than that."

Han's eyebrows went up. "A limb, I'm sure."

"Some appendage, anyway."

Obi-wan nodded as if he hadn't heard their little repartee, placid as ever. "17,000 for the passenger cargo."

Han sniffed, giving the old man his full attention again. "Yeah, but ten minutes ago you didn't say the passengers just might destroy my ship before we make Alderaan." He paused, looking out across the bar. "Or that they might attract a little Imperial attention along the way."

Through the bottles, the four of them could make out two stormtroopers in hard white plastic, asking the bartender questions.

Faith's brow furrowed and she leaned into Obi-wan. "Hey, aren't those the same kinda guys you waved off before we got here?"

"Um-hmm." To all of them. "I think perhaps now would be a good time to take our leave and collect our friends."

Han shrugged. "You do that, old man. Docking bay ninety-four when you're ready."

"Ninety four."

Han and Chewbacca the Wookie watched the mismatched pair as they left. "17,000, Chewie! This is just what we need. Get Jabba off my back."

Chewie gave a soft yowl. The stormtroopers were coming their way, looking carefully at the blank faces crafted for their benefit, then moving past.

"I know, I know. It's either gonna be the easiest money we've ever made or a complete disaster." Another huff from the Wookie. "But 17,000…."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Likely a few additions to the dramatis personae in the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

"You might want to strap yourself in, Faith."

The dark slayer's face was close to the cockpit glass, eyes fixated on the stars whizzing past the Millennium Falcon's battered hull, gulping at the magnitude of it. There was no time to even acknowledge Obi-wan's suggestion before Han pulled up hard and Faith went flying back, seeing the Imperial Destroyer drifting off to the left.

Now sort of above her.

She was _not_ going to be sick.

She slammed into another excited passenger behind her. Luke hadn't been strapped in either, and the two of them crashed into an instrument panel.

"Hey! Watch what you're landin' on over there!" Han reached past them to flick a switch that turned an angrily blinking red light off. Faith and Luke tried to disentangle themselves. Chewbacca made a little chuffing sound that earned a scowl from Han. "Aren't you supposed to be working on getting the coordinates from the—?" He interrupted himself to bank right and Luke fell back into Obi-wan's lap. Faith started to snort at the picture they made, but needed all her quick reflexes just to keep herself upright. She planted herself into a chair to avoid a repeat as a blast shook the rear of the ship. Han frowned over his shoulder before returning his focus to the battle scene in front of him. "You'd think none of you had ever been in outer space before."

"Well, nobody bothered to mention Alderaan was a planet! Or that we were gonna have to go through space to get there!" She was _not_ going to be sick. The ship heaved left.

"That's because everybody knows that!" Luke had extracted himself from Obi-wan's seat and buckled into his own as another round of blasts hit them. "What, did you think we were going to do…walk?" He sniffed, then, rocked by another blast, muttered to the cockpit in general: "Of course, with how rickety this piece of junk is, it might have been safer."

Han bristled at that. "Hey! This 'piece of junk' has seen a lot more action than you have!" But he still cast a wary eye at the control panels glittering around him, murmuring a "c'mon, baby, hold together" even as Chewie yowled at the computer and the failing shields.

Faith tightened her grip on the base of her seat. They'd busted out of Mos Eisley to get stuck in the middle of space with a huge gray ship shooting laser beams at them. How had she gotten here again? She was beginning to think prison actually might have been the safer option. Not that safe was ever really a description for anything she was involved in. She should be surprised she'd lived as long as she had. "If we can't outrun 'em, maybe just could just let me off on the Empire's big ship up there. I'm sure these yak boots Luke got me would send 'em running." The rest of it she could deal with—the slim, dark gray pants, the creamy sleeveless top—but furry boots?

"They're bantha! And you said animal hide!"

"Well, I didn't mean with the hair still on it! I'm starting to look like a—" Faith paused, staring at Chewie for a moment. "Wait, what did we say this guy was again?"

But Chewbacca was too busy with the navicomputer to give a detailed description of his Wookie origins. Another hit nearly dumped Faith unceremoniously out of her chair. From somewhere in the bowels of the ship Threepio was going on about an electrical fire. Luke reached up towards a blinking red button on the console.

"What's that?"

Han slapped his hand away. "No touching!" At his co-pilot: "Rear deflector shields are going. Chewie…."

The Wookie growled back, motioning at the computer.

"Well, if we don't get the calculations for hyperdrive soon, it won't _matter_ that we could pick up a better processing unit at the next port!"

"I thought you said this thing was fast!"

Han whirled, scowling at Luke, but, at a bark from Chewbacca, he turned back—"Right! Hang on, kid!"—and eased a lever forward until the stars made lines and they were rocketing away from the Destroyer and into the dark of space.

* * *

"If I may suggest a new strategy, R-2. Let the Wookie win."

Faith smirked at the golden droid. Maybe he was right some of the time. She watched Chewbacca lean back, paws behind his head, as if his arm-ripping prowess had nothing to do with it. She wondered what would happen if they arm-wrestled. On the game table before him, a little holographic monster squeaked and wisely retreated towards Threepio and R-2.

"Feeling better, are we?"

Faith's smirk faded as Han came in. "Yeah, about the floor…."

"Don't worry about it. You're not the only one who's ever lost their lunch with space travel." He sank down in the chair next to her. "Of course, you could always make it up to me by having dinner with me when we get to Alderaan." His eyebrow an invitation.

Faith met the eyebrow and then rolled her eyes. Probably dead, new universe, new bad guys…going steady wasn't really high on her list. "To quote Gentle Ben here: these ain't the tits you're looking for."

Luke coughed through a snort of laughter. Chewie didn't bother holding back.

"Hey, nobody asked either of you!" Han tried to stumble into something—anything—else, turning back to Faith. "The old guy really said that?"

Threepio piped up from the other side of the game table. "Actually, General Kenobi used the words 'aren't' and 'droids' instead when speaking to the storm troopers we encountered in—"

Now Luke was sidetracked from the simulator he'd been working with. "Right! When you used the Force to make them let us go on past. Like mind control."

"Not quite, Luke." Obi-wan had been watching him wield the lightsaber against the simulator. "Mind control implies an intent to exploit, to dominate. What you saw was merely an easy trick to fool the feeble-minded."

Han leaned towards Faith, trying to pretend the little exchange earlier hadn't happened. "You believe in this Force stuff? One all-powerful force controlling everything?" He sniffed, comfortable once again as the world-wise one. "Hokey religion, if you ask me."

The dark slayer shrugged, watching Luke wrench the green beam around to block a shot that nearly came through. "Seen a lotta weird shit." Her eyes were fixed on the training session, assessing strengths and weaknesses, battle plans. "And I kinda had a sacred calling once."

"Once? How do you _once_ have a—?" Luke glanced at her, but had to snap his concentration back to the remote hissing along some invisible path in front of him, waiting to strike. Obi-wan had looked over as well, quietly studying the girl now picking a piece of lint off her thigh.

"Didn't measure up." She was slumped down now, hair falling in front of her face.

Obi-wan opened his mouth, but was interrupted instead by Luke, who half-yelped as he barely got the lightsaber between himself and one of the simulator's bolts. Obi-wan sighed. "Luke, _feel_ the Force in you, around you. Let it guide you. Don't fight it." The young man merely furrowed his brow, fighting even harder in spite of himself, determined to watch the remote's every move.

And even still he did not see the shot that caught him on the back of his thigh as he twisted.

Han just laughed as Luke clapped a hand over the sting. "I'll let you have your Force, old man. Give me a blaster any day."

But Luke wasn't paying attention. Instead, he moved towards the dark slayer, who was leaning forward, hand pressed to her forehead. "Faith?"

The slayer's mind was racing. Something familiar tugging at her. Eyes inward as if she could see it. The thread of a connection. The filament of a spider's web. And she knew who was at the other end, pulling.

"B?" She said it to herself.

Dead?

No, the thread was there, quivering, but not severed.

"Faith?" Everyone in the room was looking now. Luke's word still didn't get through.

"No fuckin' way." She was muttering to herself, looking inward, holding the connection. "C'mon…even after I'm dead?" Faith imagined the other girl hunting in a Sunnydale graveyard. Playing it just that little bit too close with some demon. Faith could practically see her.

And now, apparently, she was going to get to feel her forever, too.

Luke opened his mouth to say the slayer's name a third time, but Obi-wan beat him to it, grabbing two blast helmets off the wall. "Faith, perhaps you would care to join Luke?"

Faith shook her head to clear it. "Huh? Oh, right." Another shake, letting the moment go. She stared at the lightsaber Obi-wan was holding out. His own. "You sure about this?"

"Yes, I am." He took care to meet her eyes.

Hers skittered away, shrugging as if it were nothing. She took the weapon, weighing its heft. "Yeah, alright, why not?" A chance to fight something. No one flinched. Obi-wan put the helmet on Luke and handed Faith hers.

Luke turned this way and that, practically blind. "Hey, wait! With the blast shields down, we can't see anything!" Faith reached out to steady him as he bumped into her.

Obi-wan's voice oriented them both. "Your eyes can deceive you. You must learn to reach out with the Force. Trust it."

"What makes you think I got this Force stuff?" Faith was grinning in spite of herself. She may not have known about the Force, but she knew about fighting with a hand tied behind your back, and still being pretty sure you'll win.

"The Force is everywhere, Faith. It is strong in Luke, as it was with his father. With you…." He trailed off, watching her for a moment. "…with you it is strong as well, but strange. I have never felt it in quite this way…."

She sniffed, her grin hardening. "Maybe it's just some bad booze from the bar little while ago, then, 'cause I've never heard about some all-powerful Force. Pretty sure I never tuned into it, anyway. And what I am…well, let's just say you probably wouldn't want me on your Force team."

"What are you, Faith?"

Faith had the sense he had been waiting to ask. And here she'd left herself open. Probably better that the blast shield was down and she couldn't actually see anyone's faces. Maybe if she explained it fast.

Funny how death seemed just like life, in the sense of having to go through it.

"Slayer. One girl in all the world. It's a thing. Except I was the screw-up that wasn't supposed to happen 'cause the world sorta already had one good thing goin' when I showed up." Deep breath. "Anyway, long story short, I slayed the wrong things. Didn't trust in any Force or anything but myself, even though I was workin' on that when I…you know, when I came here." She rolled the lightsaber across the palm of her hand. "I'm just pretty much not the good thing you seem to think I am, old man."

The room was quiet for a few seconds and Faith could imagine any number of scenarios: they would let her off the ship at the next port, she would have to fight her way off the ship, they had some freaky, high-tech way to get rid of her right now that she couldn't even think of and wouldn't know was coming…. She heard Obi-wan's deep voice cutting in again. "The Force itself is neither good nor evil. I feel it in you, Faith. What you will make of it remains to be seen."

Han chimed in, clearing his throat. "Well, I may not know about this Force stuff, but I know what I've seen so far, and it's been somebody good to have around in a fight." Hearing Chewbacca's soft yowl. "Goes for him, too."

"And somebody who saved me from the sand people." Luke this time, bringing his lightsaber to life by her side.

"Where Master Luke goes, R-2 and I can only concur…." The protocol droid paused a moment. "…although I wonder if you might explain what you meant by 'slayer,' and whether that includes the termination of droids—"

"Threepio…."

Even though Luke's scowl was lost behind the blast shield, the sensitive droid picked up on it. "Of course. Unreserved pleasure to serve you, Mistress Faith."

"Yeah, well…." She didn't know quite what to say. They didn't, after all, know her. She gestured at Obi-wan with the butt-end of the lightsaber. "…you sure you don't wanna try and take this back?"

Obi-wan gave a half-smile Faith couldn't see, but she heard it in his voice. "I suspect you will need it to face the remote." Luke's was already hissing in front of him. He was groping in the dark and took a shot on the hand for it.

"Well, in that case, could ya show me how to turn it on?"

Obi-wan did. And, after a misstep or two, flailing where they thought the remote would be, both Luke and Faith learned to stop thinking and start feeling, anticipating the shots before they came, Faith relaxing as the slayer in her showed what she was made of.

* * *

It felt so good to fight again, to be encouraged to do so, that Faith couldn't help her scowl when Han came in to tell them all they were approaching their destination. She gave back the loaned lightsaber. They all trooped back into the cockpit.

And, coming out of hyperdrive, there was Alderaan. Large and blue. Faith thought Earth probably looked like that, from some vantage point she'd never had.

A moon hung next to it.

"I didn't know Alderaan had a—"

"That's no moon." Obi-wan's eyes widened. "It's a space station."

"But it's too big to be a—" Luke leaned over Han's shoulder to get a closer look. "Hey, I think you might be right."

"Gonna have to say you guys have come a long way from our space stations. Bet you don't have to recycle piss on somethin' that size."

"Faith, that's not ours."

She was never going to get these things. "Right." Then it dawned on her. "Wait, that's bad, huh?"

It felt as though the space station were staring between them and then Alderaan, where they were plainly headed.

The ship rocked a little as the tractor beam hit it. It wasn't going to let them get there. And as they slipped through the station's shields to be swallowed up by an enormous docking bay, the ship rocked again. Behind them, Alderaan had just been blown into nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: New and longer-seeming!

* * *

There was hiding.

There was hiding in the smuggling compartments under the floor panels when the first knot of storm troopers rushed through. And still more hiding in the quiet aftermath as all their boots clicked down the ramp again. And hiding again when two workers heaved a trunk full of scanner equipment off its rollers and up into the belly of the Millennium Falcon.

A scuffle. A shot or two fired. Enough to bring the two remaining storm troopers from the bottom of the ramp up into the ship. More shots.

A ruse to get the control station up above to open up its doors. It did and found itself faced with an overall-clad Han, two droids, and a large trunk. Han's shots filled the room before they knew what hit them. The hallway returned to silence as the door hissed shut after them.

* * *

"Wow, that was personal." Faith threw the trunk lid off from the inside, scrambling out. She glanced at the dead officers on the floor, then smoothed her hair back, blowing out a long breath as the Wookie extracted himself less easily from the cramped container. "And also sorta stuffy. That's a lot of hair goin' on there."

The door slid open and Luke burst in, ripping a storm trooper helmet off, scowling at Han. Obi-wan followed behind and shut the door after.

"It's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here, with all your blasting!" Luke threw his helmet down on the control desk and started punching around on the computer.

Han just shrugged, leaning back in a chair. "For all the good it's going to do us. We're not going anywhere with that tractor beam."

Faith looked over at the Jedi standing next to the door. "Hey, wait…why didn't somebody say it was an option to just walk up here?" Behind her, Chewbacca was still readjusting the bandolier across his chest.

"People see what they want to see: an old man accompanied by a storm trooper…." Obi-wan gave a small shrug.

Han patted Chewie on the shoulder. "And no offense, big guy, but you do kind of stand out, no matter what they're lookin' for."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Threepio nodded slightly at Han before turning to Obi-wan. "But R-2 has found the controls for the tractor beam. He's displaying the location now."

Obi-wan studied the schematic for a moment, then nodded, heading for the door. "Make sure you're prepared to leave when I return."

Han raised his eyebrows. Luke rushed forward.

"Wait, I want to go with you!"

The old man looked between Luke and Faith. "Your destinies lie along another path."

"Destinies?"

But the Jedi was already moving quickly down the empty hallway.

* * *

"Well, this blows."

Han stopped his pacing for a moment to look over at Faith, then back at Luke. "She's right, you know. I don't want to just sit here until the old fossil decides to show up again." He looked through the window down to his ship in the docking bay. "And even if we could get past the tractor beam, this thing just destroyed a planet. What makes him think it's not gonna blow us up next?"

"All that just 'cause we were headin' there?" Faith stared past the Millennium Falcon to the bits of rubble still drifting in space.

All that was left. Add about a billion to the list of lives she'd ruined.

"They probably just wanted a chance to use their new toy anyway." Han wasn't sure if Faith heard him.

She had and she knew it. Intellectually, she knew it. "Gettin' easier every day to find the demons around here."

Han cocked one eyebrow, but, getting no further explanation, went on. "So, what did you guys do to the Empire anyway?" He wished, not for the first time on this trip, that he'd just kept drinking in Mos Eisley.

"We're on a secret mission. For the Rebellion." Luke said it with a capital "R" and hoped it wasn't obvious that he had no idea just what R-2 had.

"Now, see, this is what happens when you get a bunch of people who mean well together with just enough wherewithal to be dangerous." Han put his hand up as Luke opened his mouth in protest. "Look, I've got no love for the Empire either, but nobody's blowing up planets about it because I stay out of their way and they stay out of mine."

"Well, like it or not, you're in their way now." Luke made a face at Han's smug expression, but it was Faith who cut in.

"More like up their ass." The Millennium Falcon was just right there below them, in the middle of all that Imperial gray. If they could just get in it and go. Faith whirled around from where she'd been looking out the window, turning to take the rest of them in. "So that's way they want it, huh? I say, let's give it to 'em." Blank stares. "What? Fly-boy here doesn't wanna sit still and that's not my thing either and you're already dressed up." Luke's eyebrow went up, considering. "So we can either sit here or go try to take this gun out—"

It was Han's turn to interrupt. "Wait, you want to go marching through an Imperial space station to take out its biggest weapon? Not me…I'm not agreeing to that! It's suicide!"

Luke rolled his eyes, already reaching for his helmet. Some action, finally. "I thought you didn't wanna stay here! You think they're not going to be firing when they find us?"

Chewbacca growled his agreement. Luke had a point. He pressed it. "Of course, you can just wait here if you want…. You could watch over R-2 and Threepio…."

Threepio glanced at Han, who was looking at him, dubiously. The protocol droid turned back to Luke. "Perhaps it would be easier if R-2 and I just returned to the ship and waited there."

Han was nodding before he even finished. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

Behind him, Faith was already pulling the captain's jacket off one of the dead officers. She turned to find everyone looking at her. "What, there can't be women officers?"

"No, it's just…." Luke didn't know quite where he was going with that.

Han just reached out for the other officer's clothes. "She's got a point. We'll attract a lot less attention this way. And captain is more my style than janitor." If you were going to do it, do it right.

"But why do you both get to be officers and I—?"

Faith patted him on the shoulder. "Because nobody looks as good as you do in hard plastic."

* * *

"Who knew you needed a black cape and a big, plastic helmet to guard— Hey, isn't that that princess chick?"

"The Princess? Where?" Luke the storm trooper whirled around, half-dragging Chewie in his marginally-fastened handcuffs with him.

"What princess? Nobody said anything about a princess!" Han turned to see where they were looking and caught sight of two officers, a storm trooper, and a young woman all in white, handcuffed, some thirty feet away. And then he saw the dark shape that paused a moment, half-turning in their direction, shaking its head before disappearing through a doorway. Han had to keep himself from drawing his gun right then and there. "Nobody said anything about Darth Vader either! This plan just keeps getting worse and worse."

"Vader!" Luke said it loud enough to catch the eye of one of the officers down the hall. He managed to keep the second half of his outburst under his breath, but Faith and Han and Chewie couldn't mistake what he said: "Vader murdered my father! And now he's got the Princess!" Only Faith's tight grip on his elbow kept him from running down the hallway on both counts.

"You're gonna get us—oh, hell." All of them saw the officers dragging the young woman down the hall right towards them. "Now what?" The last was under Faith's breath as she felt her hand reaching for a stake or a knife. The usual things. The usual response to "now what?" And not finding them there.

Another flurry of muttering, this time between Luke and Han: "Just figure out how to get the Princess." "I'm not here for any princess!" "But she's in danger!" "Better her than me!" "But she's rich!" "Better her than—wait, really? Why didn't you say so? Chewie get ready."

And then the officers were there, the Princess scowling at the ground behind them with her storm trooper escort. The officers looked between Faith and Han and the Wookie Luke was holding.

"Where are you going with this…thing?"

They hadn't worked this part out.

Faith made the mistake of being the one to open her mouth. "Um…." She didn't open it very far. But now they were fixated on her, too.

"Is there a problem, Captain…?"

Faith's mind was blank. They were obviously waiting, and not very patiently.

"State your name and business." Hands reaching for their holsters.

"Uh…name? Right…." Name? Name? Tight-ass, rule-loving…. "Summers." She spit it out and then plowed right on past. "And we're, um, on our way to the detention…place." That didn't sound right. Why hadn't they asked Han, for crying out loud? Did she look like a source of information?

"Well, then, Captain Summers, I'm sure you're aware that the 'detention place' is on level five, while we are currently on level two, which—"

And then finally all hell had the decency to break loose behind her, Chewie roaring and pulling away from Luke, Han rearing back with a yell, yanking out his blaster, Luke already swinging his gun around to take out the storm trooper holding on to the Princess. And then someone was pressing a blaster into Faith's hands and she didn't know what to do with it until she did and slammed the butt-end of it into the smug officer's face. Then the slayer snapped off a side kick that sent him flying back down the hallway. When the remaining officer leapt at her, she caught him easily and spun him around into the wall. More roaring behind her and two shots fired as Han and Luke took out the officers she'd felled. The slayer looked around, but there was nothing left to hit.

In the distance, they heard boots clicking on the metal floor.

"Company's on its way!" Han was already gathering blasters from the dead. Luke ripped his helmet off and was whirling from side to side, trying to figure out which way the troops were coming.

"Who _are _you people?" The Princess just stood in the middle, staring at all of them in their Imperial uniforms.

"We're here to save you! We're with Ben Kenobi!" Luke threw it over his shoulder along with a big grin. "Luke Skywalker, at your service. And Faith Summers—" His hand indicating.

"You know that's not really my— " They didn't have time to get into this now. "Oh, whatever. Fine."

Luke was still going, breathless. "—and that's Han Solo and Chewbacca. We came to—"

Han raised up. "Now, wait just a minute, I didn't come here to _save _anyone."

Princess Leia just stared. "You're here to _save_ me?" Han opened his mouth to repeat his comment, but she didn't wait for him. "And this was your big plan? Ambush my guards in a hallway and then…." Neither she nor they knew how to finish that sentence. The footsteps were getting closer now. "Where's Ben?"

"He's here." Luke saw her looking. "Not _here_, but here, and we're here—"

"Three people playing dress-up and a walking carpet?"

Faith had had about enough. "Well, unless you're planning to unroll those braids all Rapunzel like, all _you_ got's handcuffs and your white silk pajamas. Sure wouldn't wanna get in the way of _that_ strategy." Why was there always some girl with a stick up her—

"Well, mine was better than this! So what, you guys got in here, but didn't have a plan for getting out?" Leia grabbed the blaster out of Faith's hand, pointed it at a hatch in the wall, and blew it open.

"Hey, dumbass. I don't think the bad guys are in—"

Leia gave Faith a look. "Well, at least I'm _doing_ something!"

"The only reason I'm _not_ is that you just _took_ my—"

But then the shots came flashing down the hallway as a cadre of troops rounded the corner. Han and Luke and the Princess promptly returned fire, pushing them back.

"Okay, you win, your highness. Time to do your somethin' somewhere else." Faith picked up Leia easily, one arm around that slim waist.

"Hey, let me—!"

"Go? Sure thing." Faith tossed the Princess like a sack of potatoes through the opening. "Well, that was satisfying."

Beside Faith, Chewie yowled, stopping just at the edge.

Han yelled back, still trading shots with the storm troopers. "I don't care if you smell trash!"

Faith looked back at the hole. "And just getting more satisfying all the time."

Another yowl.

"Chewie, get in there!"

Another volley of shots and Faith ducked and the Wookie and Han dove after the Princess.

"Faith, go!" Luke glanced over, motioning her in, but giving the Imperial soldiers the opening they needed.

"Luke, watch—!" But actions were faster than words, and so the slayer lunged and crashed into him instead, bringing the two of them to the ground as more shots whizzed by where they'd been. They scrambled for the relative safety of a bulkhead. "Gonna borrow this a sec." Faith unhooked the lightsaber from his belt and flicked it on, surging to her feet, the slayer glinting in her eyes. "Now, see, _this_ is more my style." In a great, sweeping arc, she deflected the shots coming straight for them, advancing with every block.

Behind her, she felt Luke moving with her, firing around to keep the storm troopers pinned as they moved down the hall. The lightsaber was an extension of her, the slayer grinning at the anticipatory reflex, the sizzle of beam on beam as the shots collided with the blue blade, knowing there was something more satisfying and solid for it to encounter up ahead. Soldiers darting around the corner. She could cut them down!

She caught sight of Luke next to her with his helmet off. Human inside that black and white shell.

And she flinched, missing a shot that skated just over her left shoulder. Then the tinny sound of fire coming from behind them, too, both of them realizing it at the same time, and realizing they were too far from the opening Princess Leia had made.

"Gonna hafta run for it!"

"But the Princess! Han!"

Faith shook her head then jerked the blade out to parry another shot. "Pretty sure they can deal with the trash shoot. They'll find a way back to the ship. Cover me!" And with that and a whoop, she took off, blocking shots as she went, faster than her mind could even recognize they were coming. Luke could only follow after, firing as he ran, until the remaining soldiers were running, too, in the face of it, and Luke and Faith only had to worry about staying ahead of the ones coming up quickly from behind.

* * *

"Faith! Wait, where are we going?"

They charged through the station, picking off the storm troopers ahead of them even as they had close calls with the ones on their heels.

"Fuck if I—hey!"

The slayer felt Luke grab her elbow and drag her through a side door into another corridor and then they were tearing down the anonymous gray of that hallway and Faith had no idea where they were going but could only hope Luke did and they were still dodging the shots from the two storm troopers who'd made the sharp turn with them until they came into a larger open space and saw the ships of the docking bay in the distance and, in the foreground, Obi-wan, fighting for his life.

The Jedi had his lightsaber up, blue blade dancing. Across from him, a figure all in black, his own lightsaber burning red.

"Vader!" Luke hissed the word, his blaster up and pointed.

In a blur, that blaster was gone from his hand, clattering uselessly away across the metal floor. Luke could only stare where it had been. And then Faith saw the anger seething in him. Could practically feel it herself.

So when he charged, she knew he would do it.

"Luke!" From Obi-wan, who noticed that his adversary was turning to meet this new threat with a long red blade. Faith was running instead of talking and got to the young Skywalker first. The two of them crashed to the ground together, Faith hardly hitting the floor before she was scrambling up again to head for Vader herself.

Obi-wan's blue blade flared up to draw Vader back in. Red on blue. The crackling of light. Faith was almost there and then felt herself picked up and thrown into Obi-wan. The two of them went down in a tangle and Darth Vader turned for the young man still picking himself off the floor, not as fast as the slayer.

"Luke!" This time from the docking bay where Han and Leia and Chewie were running from blaster fire towards the Millennium Falcon, R-2 and Threepio already disappearing into the body of it. And Leia was transfixed, watching Vader advance on Luke, Vader's head swiveling between the figure on the floor in front of him and the girl in white some distance away. Han had to drag her up the gangway.

Faith chucked her lightsaber at Luke and saw the younger man catch it, flicking it on to meet the strike coming for him. Luke struck back—great, big, hacking swings that drove the black figure back towards Faith and Obi-wan.

And the old man was grabbing her arm, holding her with his eyes. "You must not let him die."

"Look, I'm not the one you want for this kinda—"

But he cut her off. "You are, Faith. You must be. You are the one we need."

"Now I _know_ you're out of your—"

But Vader had kicked Luke away and was swinging now for her and she was ducking and the blow went through the air above her head and the Jedi Master next to her.

"NO!"

Obi-wan was gone as if he had never been, the robe a huddle on the floor, the lightsaber banging down and rolling against her foot, until she had it up and on and pointed at Vader.

"You killed him!" Breathing heavy, her dark eyes glittering. "And you killed Luke's dad, but you ain't gonna—"

"How many have you killed?" A deep rumble from somewhere inside the mask.

Her jaw dropped open. "How do you…?" The red blade was coming for her and she had to meet it.

"Do you think it's not in your face, girl? The Dark Side?"

"In my—?" She sucked in a breath as his lightsaber came within inches of her stomach and the other scar there. And then she swung back, feeling the heat rising at this costumed man who thought he knew her. Rising with the strength she was bringing to bear her slayer strength, pressing each parry. That implacable black helmet. "Stop fuckin' starin' at me!"

But then there was Luke again charging in, Vader's lightsaber slipping away from Faith to turn and find a hole in that on-coming attack and catch the young man on his thigh with a glancing blow. Smell of burning flesh. Luke's scream as he fought to stay standing. Faith kicked out and caught Vader in the side, sending him flying back into a bulkhead.

Then it was chaos again. Storm troopers firing now that they ran little risk of hitting their overlord. The knot of them growing larger in the docking bay until it was clear that Faith and Luke couldn't make it to the Falcon, and they would have to settle for what they could. She scooped Luke up and bolted for the nearest fighter plane, getting them in and the cockpit down finally.

"Can you fly this thing?" The Millennium Falcon was already up and turning around. "Can you do it, Luke? 'Cause I can't."

He was pale but nodding, fumbling at unfamiliar controls as she wedged herself into the space that wasn't really a seat behind him and felt the movement as they lifted.

They pulled up and away, following the other ship, dodging the bigger guns that were setting up in the bay. Across the radio channel she could hear Han's voice. "Gonna be a real short trip if that old man didn't—" They were dodging three more fighters that had followed them out, guns working.

No tractor beam pulling at them.

"Thank you, Ben." Faith barely heard it from Luke's lips and wanted to say something, her fingers curling around the Jedi Master's lightsaber, but there was no time and Luke was shouting again at the comlink. "Hey, it's us! It's us! Don't shoot!"

"Well, how the heck am I supposed to tell? You look like—!"

"I know, but coming in above you. I've got the one to the left!"

Faith didn't know how Luke was flying and shooting and talking all at once. She could only concentrate on not getting sick, like a mantra, over and over. Not getting sick. Space flipped from side to side and upside down through the cockpit glass. The space station was there and then it wasn't and then it was back again.

"What about that big gun?"

"You got me, kid, but I got enough on my—"

Leia's voice now. "Keep moving!"

"Gee, thanks…now why didn't I think of—!"

"It won't be able to fix on you! You're too small! You've got to keep moving!"

"Not something I'm having a problem with, sweetheart!" At that moment, the Falcon was diving to pursue one of the two TIE fighters left, Chewie on the gun picking one off. One left and Luke lurched down to follow it, finally got it in his sights and then lit up the sky with it.

"Good shot!" Han's tinny voice through space. "Everybody okay over there?"

Faith answered for them, glancing up at the scorch mark against the white armor on Luke's leg. "Could be better."

"Alright, here're the coordinates. Punch 'em in and let's get out of here."

* * *

Faith didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until she started awake. Not a dream. Space was slowing down again. A moon was coming into view.

"Identify yourselves."

The voice crackled through the radio and Luke seemed to start awake as well, sucking in a breath as he shifted and felt the wound in his leg again.

A little ahead of them, the Millennium Falcon glided through space. Faith could hear familiar voices across the distance, answering for all of them.

"Solo here. And Chewbacca. Skywalker and Summers in the other ship. And I think we've got a princess you might be interested in."

"The Princess is with you?"

"I'm here." Leia's voice cutting in.

"Your highness! We had thought you were lost, after the battle near Tatooine…."

"Don't worry about that now. We've got wounded. They're following us, in the Imperial fighter. Don't fire on it."

"As you say. Landing bay four. We look forward to your arrival, your highness."

And look forward they did. Faith could see the crowd gathering when they came in under the clouds. The ships set down side by side. Faith peered around the front seat to see Luke grimacing as he struggled with the belts holding him in. The cockpit glass started to open and Faith stood up, leaning over to the ground.

"Could use a little help up here!"

From down below: "Okay, you are _so_ not my sister!"


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Happy 4th! Coincidental, but there are explosions here.

* * *

"Don't shoot!" Luke was half-up out of his seat trying to get in between Faith and the gun pointed at her. "We're not with the Empire! She's not with the Empire!"

"Well, you know what they say: Looks like the enemy, flies in the big ship thingie of the enemy…."

"I'm not sure 'big ship thingie' was originally part of that phrase, but you do make a good point, Dawn." Willow drew herself up, arms crossed across her chest. Dawn's blaster was pointed straight at Faith. Willow's was holstered, but there.

Faith's mouth had fallen open. She snapped it shut. Then opened it again, having arranged her face into something more like its usual. "Figures I'd meet the two of you in hell."

"Hell?"

Dawn, in the meantime, had hardly taken a breath. "And, what, you thought you could just steal my last name because, oh, look, la, la, I'm in another dimension and I can do whatever I want?" It wasn't a question.

Willow was still stuck on what the slayer had said. "Hell? Faith, you're not dead. At least I don't think you are, because I'm pretty sure I'm not and how could I be seeing you not all ghost-y?"

"Not dead yet." Dawn's gun was still fixed on its target.

"Does she even know how to use that? You guys just go around handin' guns out?" Faith was pointing at the blaster and looking at the Rebel crowd that didn't know quite what to make of this scene. But there were more important things. "And what do you mean I'm not—Jesus! Tell me you didn't send me here! You didn't think prison was enough? B wanted that shit and, for one fuckin' time, I thought, you know, hey, she might be right and I tried to do what she wanted and now…. Did she put you up to this, 'cause that's just bull—"

"What, me? I didn't send you here! Not that I wouldn't have considered it if I'd thought about it, like when you were holding me hostage with the mayor or when you were, I don't know, trying to make sure my graduation was more of an all-you-can-eat buffet, even though then I'm not sure I could have then because I was still pretty learner-ish with the spells, exhibit A being Amy in her cage—"

"You're sure this isn't hell? 'Cause I think babbling might be a circle of it or something."

"Hey! I was talking here!"

Luke was looking back and forth between the slayer behind him and the two girls below. "Will somebody please tell me what's going on?"

The slayer sank back against the inside of the cockpit, arms crossed. "Fuck if I know. Ask the Bobsey twins down there. I'm just processin' the whole not-dead thing."

Han was on his way over, blaster pointed down for the moment, but in his hand. His eye was on Dawn. "Who's dead?"

"Not." Willow, clarifying.

Leia was right behind Han, holding out a hand to Luke, who was wincing as he climbed down. "Okay, who's _not_ dead?"

"Faith."

"And does anybody smell trash?"

Faith snickered a little as Dawn looked around and the Princess frowned.

But Han plowed ahead. "Okay, so Faith's not dead. I think I'm missing something here, since that part seemed obvious enough." Han was waiting for an explanation here from someone, anyone.

The redhead sighed. "Okay, short version, there's Buffy, who is a slayer—do you know what a slayer is, or is that the long version, or maybe it's just short enough to say hero?" She could see Faith rolling her eyes and Luke opening his mouth. She hurried on. "But anyway Buffy's fighting this hell god person and jumps into a big dimensional portal to save Dawn, who's really a key—don't ask because that's _definitely_ the long version—by closing it herself. Only she jumps in it and the portal closes but then she's not there and the Powers That Be said _that _wasn't the way it was supposed to happen and they come to us and are all 'you must bring the slayer back' in that kinda deep and mysterious tone and, poof, they send us here."

Everybody stared.

R-2 let out a low whistle.

Dawn was still glaring at Faith. "And they _obviously_ should have been more specific when they sent us to where the slayer was."

"Oh, like I planned this! Like I just sat in my 12x12 figurin' how I could spell my way to the middle of the desert and…." Her voice trailed off as the images flashed behind her eyelids. Desert. Sand. The chaos of waking in it. The sounds. That shallow indentation beside her. Someone crying out. "Shit."

But the last word was so quiet it was for Faith alone. Willow was busy rushing ahead.

"Wait! You went there, too? To Tatooine? That's where they sent us! Buffy _must _have been there! That's where they sent us! Didn't you see her? You must have seen her!"

They were begging for some sign of the Chosen One.

"Lemme see, holier-than-thou blonde? Yeah, no, didn't see one of those. " The rock was already in Faith's stomach. But damn if she was going to let them see it.

"I swear to god, Faith, if you did anything to her…." Dawn took a half step forward.

"What makes you think I did—?"

"Oh, I dunno. How about, like, everything?"

"Now wait just a minute!" Leia stepped into the middle of it, mustering all of her royal dignity. Any other time and Han would have been rolling his eyes. But now he and Chewie were standing next to the slayer as well. "Faith just got us off of a whole space station full of Imperial troops. She fought Darth Vader to try to save Ben! She saved Luke!"

But Willow was undeterred. "Oh, but that's what she does! She comes in and seems all exciting and new and attractive with her stories of naked alligator wrestling and—"

"Hangin' on to that memory, aintcha, Red?" So easy to fall back into familiar patterns. Sly grin.

Willow blushed. "I am _not_!" Clearing her throat. "I am just trying to warn these people before you decide that the Dark Side's just full of pretty decent father figures once you discount all the, you know, Evil."

The slayer kept her mouth clamped in a hard line. She knew what the mayor had been. But it didn't make the other stuff any less real. Not that anyone cared about that.

So Willow kept going. "The Rebels are trying to do a good thing here. And when we couldn't find Buffy right away, we found these guys and figured that, sooner or later, Buffy would find them, too, because they're fighting the Dark Side."

Dawn cut in. "Only, instead, we get you. Who just _happened_ to show up exactly where Buffy was supposed to be."

Exactly where Buffy was supposed to be. Was? Is? Faith jumped down to the ground. A slayer's jump. Landing easily. Dawn and Willow both flinched back a step. Faith couldn't help the curl in her lip at that.

"Yeah, story of my life."

And with that, she walked off into the hanger alone.

* * *

"So, I'm thinking you're not planning on hanging around this joint waiting for the big space station heading this way."

At Han's voice, Faith turned to see him pulling a cart. Chewbacca was behind him. They were heading for the Millennium Falcon, threading their way through the mix of pilots and technicians in the hanger. All of them were out of their Imperial costumes.

"Huh?"

"Your welcome party? Not really very welcoming." Han gestured in the general direction of the meeting going on about the Death Star that had evidently tracked their departure right back to the heart of the Rebel operation.

Faith's face was a mask. She hadn't been thinking about Dawn and Willow. "They have their reasons."

"Yeah, well, I don't know that I'd much like people looking into my past either. I do what I can to get along, if you catch my drift." He rocked back on his heels a little. "And anyway, it'd be suicide to stay here. We got lucky earlier, and I'm happy to take my luck and its cash equivalent and—"

"Run?"

The three of them all turned to find the Princess behind them, her royal scowl battling with the hurt flickering at the edges of her eyes as she looked from face to face.

"You've got the reward you wanted, so you're just going to leave?" This was for Han, and he drew himself up in response.

"Now that you mention it, yes." He could see that was about to unleash another tirade. "Look, sister, I stuck my neck out for you once already. I never signed on for your cause. And I sure never signed on to get killed."

That royal scowl was firmly in place now. "They 'signed on' for what they believe in. _Somebody_ has to stand up to the Empire."

"Well, it doesn't have to be me."

She opened her mouth, thought better of it, and then tried a different tack. "Luke's going to fly. They think they've found a weakness, if they can just make it in close enough. We could use another good pilot." Behind her, Luke was walking their way in his orange flight suit.

"Wish Luke the best of luck for me then." Turning to Faith. "You're welcome to come along. Chewie and I always have room for a good fighter. You know where to find us." He walked off before she could turn him down or Luke could get there and say anything else.

Faith watched him go.

"You can't really be thinking of going with him." The Princess reached out for the slayer's arm.

"You just said you need pilots. I can hardly even fly without getting sick." Her dark eyes met Leia's own. Why was this girl sticking up for her? "I'm not what you need." But she was still standing there.

"Maybe you can't fly a plane like Luke, but, Faith, neither can I and I'm still—"

"Hey, I promise I won't stuff you behind my seat this time." Luke sidled up and bumped her shoulder. She glanced down at his leg. He was favoring a little, but not as much as she'd thought he might. He saw where her eyes were going. "The medi-droids were able to bandage it and dull the pain for now. They can fix it up better when I get back."

There was a little silence there.

Then Luke started again. More serious this time. "Faith, I never really thanked you. What you did…with Vader." A little twitch in his jaw with that one. "And Ben."

Faith still hadn't lost that heaviness. Looking at Luke, he was too young for this. She could swear there were lines in his face that hadn't been there when they'd first found him on the ground, after the sand people had… After they'd knocked him out to do what with him? To do what with Buffy? But people were talking to her.

"—way you were able to fight, Faith. I've just never seen anything like that. And the way you took on those odds. You may be crazy," Leia swept her hand out to take in the hanger as a whole. "but then we're all crazy. I put the plans that might save us all in an R-2 unit on the hopes an old Jedi my father once knew might find them. Darth Vader tortured me and I still told him the wrong location for the Rebel base. We've already been lucky together once, Faith. So I'm asking you to stay with us and—"

"Let me guess. Faith's gonna bail on us. Again."

Faith whirled as Dawn joined the group, handing Luke his helmet. "Thought that was what you wanted."

"Well, it's sure what I expected. Why don't you go before you kill somebody who might actually do some good for the Rebellion?"

"I'm not gonna—!" The slayer threw up her hands. "Okay, whatever, have it your way." To Leia and Luke, both with hurt faces. "You know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you thought I was somebody I wasn't. I'm even sorta sorry that I threw you down the trash shoot, Princess." She ran a hand back through her hair, trying not to meet any eyes. "Look, just help these two find Buffy. She's the one you want."

"But Faith!" Luke started to go after her, but Leia took his arm. "I thought she would…."

"So did I."

Faith never turned around.

* * *

She slouched down in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, allowing Han and Chewie to move around her, punching buttons, trying to figure out where they would go now.

"So we pay Jabba and get him off my back, and then—"

Chewie yowled at him.

"Yes, I think Jabba's gonna take the money."

Another yowl.

"Okay, so he's mad. So he's got bounty hunters there. He's still going to have to pay them, so if I just meet that bounty price, it's a win-win. Start charting a course to Tatooine."

Tatooine. Where this whole thing started.

Faith closed her eyes and remembered that tug of connection she'd felt earlier. If she concentrated and reached, she could feel the thin filament still there. The tangible embodiment of the link they'd always had: slayers, dreams, the ability to hurt each other. Some of it inherent, some of it forged. She'd never looked for it before. Now it was as obvious as the unseen web of the Force Ben had opened her eyes to. Pluck a taut string.

And Buffy was still there, somewhere. That cry in the desert, cut off.

She wasn't sure the queasiness in the pit of her stomach was just from the flying. What would she find on Tatooine? Not like Buffy had been swinging by on visiting day at the old correctional facility.

Faith looked out at the stars. In the distance, the gray space station loomed. Little sparks of light around it showed battle. In the background, the comlink was still picking up the crackling Rebel signal.

The cries of pilots, the abrupt silence of some. Luke's voice.

"I can't shake him!"

"I'm on him, Luke!" then "Hold on!"

"Blast it, Wedge! Where are you?"

In the Falcon, Chewbacca gave a low growl.

"I know, Chewie, but what do you want me to do? They haven't got a chance out there."

On the comlink. "They came from behind." Then no more from that one. There were fewer ships out there than there had been.

"We can't leave."

Han and Chewie both turned to look at Faith, who was still staring past them through the glass.

"Tatooine can wait. We can't leave Luke out there."

Chewie yowled his agreement and turned to look at Han, arms crossed.

"Well, what are we supposed to—"

Chewie's growl grew louder.

Faith put a hand on his furry arm. "We've got a good ship and a gun." The Death Star was making its way around the planet towards the moon. "And if we don't do something, it's going to wipe out a whole planet full of people again, including exactly everyone I know in this dimension, present company excluded."

Han looked back out at the ships darting towards the gray surface of the space station. "Can you work a gun?"

"If it's anything like a video game, then yeah."

* * *

They came in hard and fast, any targets a blur.

This was not like a video game. Faith turned and saw Chewie behind her, focused on his own evasive targets. Both of them were shooting into space.

"Coming on the right!" Han's voice through the intercom.

"Whose right? Am I on the right or the left?"

"It's yours, Faith. You're right!"

The ship went screaming across her field of vision and she swiveled, spitting gunfire behind it. She heard a roar behind her as Chewie scored one.

"Okay, okay. You'd think you'd blown up the Death Star your—" She left the sentence as another TIE fighter came into view with two others. "Got three of 'em over here." She pressed the buttons and saw her shots blaze out and hit the wing of one. It spiraled down and crashed into the surface. "Check that: two, thank you very much. They're heading for that canyon thing over there." She felt the ship heave under her as Han took the Falcon in that direction. There were just a handful of Rebel ships. Faith listened for Luke's voice.

"Biggs, Wedge, let's close it up. We're going in. We're going in full throttle." It crackled through the line.

"Han, get closer! That's Luke in front down there."

"On it, Faith."

She heard Chewie taking more shots. Flying over, she saw a gun on the surface go up in flames. The Falcon took a hit from another that was still operative and Faith went flying halfway back into the crawlspace. Chewbacca brushed past her back into the main ship as several of the sensors screamed their alarm.

Another shot rocked them.

"We're going to have to take her back up. We're too big a target for those surface guns!"

"Wait, three fighters just came in on Luke's tail. They're getting too close!" Faith aimed at the surface and found another just as it was swiveling to take them in its sights. She felt Han gun the engines to get them closer. The shots from below kept coming. She locked her legs around the chair to keep herself in it.

From somewhere, Chewie yowled and banged metal on metal.

"I know, Chewie! But we've got to keep those shields!"

Three Imperial ships danced in and out of Faith's target screen. A wild shot into the middle of their formation clipped the wing of an outer one, and it went careening off, but the other two stayed steady. Both of Luke's escorts were gone. The two trailing ships stayed steady.

"Get me closer!"

"I'm trying!"

The Falcon surged again, and Faith had the center ship with its curved wings in her sights, dancing around the middle of her screen.

"Almost got it!"

But just as she was about to pull the trigger, the other Imperial ship, trying to evade the incoming ship, veered too hard and clipped the edge of the other's wing. The wingman exploded against the wall of the trench, while the other went flying out into space, end over end.

"Yahoo!" Han's voice boomed together with Faith's whoop through the intercom, followed by "do it, kid!" And then Luke did and let loose his torpedo and pulled up hard, and Han pulled the Falcon up hard, too, and both ships shot away from the Death Star just as it exploded into space.

* * *

So this was what an award ceremony was like.

A big center aisle. Rows and rows of audience, watching. The long, slow walk up to the dais. With music. Everything spit-shined.

The four of them: Han, Luke, Chewbacca, and Faith. All walking side-by-side. Faith kept her eye on the Princess. This would not be the moment you would want to trip because, if you did, it might not be real anymore. The spell broken.

No, the music was still there. And now there were medals going around all of their necks. Heavy and gold. Commander Faith Summers. She wondered if she ought to have them change that. There was some bowing, more music. Faith could hardly see things in any sequence. This could not be her life.

But when she turned with the rest of them to face the assembly, it was the life everyone else was seeing. The clapping. The swell of brass. She stole a glance at Dawn and Willow a few rows back. Dawn was clapping and looking at Luke. Faith's eyes hit Willow's and then skittered away like you do when you've been caught looking. But in that half-second, they might have seen the redhead's curiosity, a slight tilt of the head, maybe even a half-smile of apology. Maybe.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks so much for any reviews!

* * *

"Gonna get kinda cold if you just keep standin' there lookin'."

Faith didn't need to turn to see Willow in the doorway in order to know she was there. Faith would swear she could feel the variation the redhead represented from the air and the cold ice walls. Luke would say it was the Force. Ben might've said it, too, if he'd still been alive.

Of course, being a slayer, she could also hear Willow's breathing, even quiet and regular as it was.

Not that, when you thought about it, it made sense to be able to hear breathing, from a slayer's point of view.

Not that, when you thought about it, it made sense for her to be a slayer in a dimension where she hadn't felt one single vampire.

"I was trying to decide what sort of ice sculpture I should commission you to make." Willow's breath showed up in front of her in clouds. The rooms carved into the glacier on Hoth inspired feelings of winter wonderland. And just plain cold. Faith didn't turn from her lightsaber exercises, but the redhead had the impression she was rolling her eyes. "I'm leaning towards a unicorn."

Faith snorted. "What, no lifesize girlfriend?" She lowered the glowing blade long enough to look over. "You were with some girl, right? I feel like I'm remembering that from when I…you know." That sentence was going nowhere fast. Various hostilities they'd papered over in the three years they'd been scrambling with the Rebellion to stay ahead of the Empire. At least she'd gotten to see some action in all of it. More than Willow and Dawn had seen…they'd been doing other things. Administrative things. Computer things. Usually someplace that was other than where she was. Faith had some vague idea they were trying to find a certain slayer, too. Unsuccessfully, apparently.

Faith might've been having better luck keeping her own secret tabs on that. But that was a whole different beast from tracking the other slayer down for a forced reunion.

Willow hadn't been thinking about any of that. "Tara? Yeah." She sighed, then furrowed her brow. "I mean, no…no, to the ice-sculpture proposition, which sounds cold and unpleasant. Yes to Tara." Another sigh. "I'd just gotten her back, too."

An arched eyebrow.

"There was brain-sucking and ensuing craziness…it's a long story."

Faith figured it probably was. Most things were. "But ya got her back right before B did her big swan dive?" She could imagine it. It would have been heroic. Willow nodded. "Then you got sent about a gabillion miles away."

Another nod. "We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. It was just like the Powers plucked Dawn and me out of there and then we woke up here. Oh, and there were some cryptic words in the meantime. All 'you must bring the slayer back' and 'this was not the way it was to be' and why do they always refuse to explain anything?" Smaller now. "She probably doesn't even know where I went. None of them do, I bet."

Faith wasn't good with this sort of thing. "Not much comfort to you, but I'm kinda glad they didn't send Giles or Xander."

Willow chuckled. "Xander would've loved it. This is like his dream." She looked over at Faith. "Of course, he would've wanted to be a Jedi."

"Don't look at me…I didn't pick this gig."

"That's sort of a habit with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Easy enough to feel that old defensive edge.

Willow's hands went up. "I meant like with slaying." Then she went further. "I'm pretty sure you picked some of the other stuff." She immediately saw the other girl's mouth harden into a line. "Okay, I shouldn't have said that. It's not like you've killed anyone in three years." It came out less apologetically than she wanted, so she threw in a half smile.

"Not true."

The half smile disappeared. "Excuse me?"

"Killed some of the Empire's troopers."

Relief. "Oh, well, sure, but that doesn't count."

"Doesn't it?" The slayer's brown eyes were dark and unreadable. She flicked her lightsaber on again and went back to it, slashing the air in front of her.

"No, I mean, that's war and there're always special rules for war and sort of a general understanding that people will get killed in the middle of it and anyway, that's not what I came here to ask." She took a breath, forcing herself to return to some sort of normal level of discourse with this girl who had the unnerving ability to put her on the defensive. Faith was raising an eyebrow. "What I meant to ask, was about this Force stuff you and Luke have been trying to study."

"Studyin's something you do."

"Right, well, learning about, anyway."

"Fat lot of learning we're doin'. Kinda like blind leading the blind around here." Faith ran her hand back through her hair. The sweat on her arms was cooling quickly in the ice room. Ben might've known what to do.

"But it's like a mystical force, right? Because I haven't been able to do any magic since I got here and I thought—"

"That explains why I haven't been turned into a toad or something yet."

"Faith, I'm trying to be non-confrontational here."

"Right." It was so easy to think otherwise, given everything. Faith put up her hands in truce.

"So I wanted to know what you and Luke were—"

"Luke's here?"

Both girls turned to see Han duck his head in.

Willow's brow furrowed. "Here? No, I haven't seen him. I think he was out with Dawn, looking for Imperial probes."

"He went out with Dawn?" Now Leia appeared in the doorway.

"What, you jealous?" Han's eyebrow was raised at the Princess now bristling beside him.

"No, I'm not jealous! Why would I be jealous?"

"'Cause you've got a thing for him."

"What if I do? Are _you_ jealous?"

"So, did you guys just come in here to relive junior high, or was there something else?"

Han and Leia both had the decency to look at little chastened at Faith's comment. Han opened his mouth first, straightening up. "Luke—and Dawn, too, I guess—" Nodding at Willow. "It's getting late and nobody's seen them check in."

Faith reflexively looked for a window to check the remaining daylight, but of course there was none. Had she really lost that much time with the lightsaber? "It's too fuckin' cold out there at night."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Han started off down the hallway, his mouth a set line now. Faith hooked her lightsaber to her belt, grabbed her parka off the chair, and followed. Willow and Leia were left to trail after.

"Wait! You can't go out there! You'll freeze!"

"If I don't, they definitely will."

At Faith's clipped response, Han whirled. "You? You're not going out there, sister, I am!"

The slayer stood her ground, slipping snow pants over her slim pants. Sometimes she had to appreciate the bantha boots. "Don't think your hot air's gonna keep you warm."

"Hey!"

She tried to be a little nicer about it. "Look, I'd just have to go rescue your ass later. So I'm savin' a trip."

Leia was still there at her elbow. "But what about you?"

"Yeah, well…." A glance at Willow as she swung up onto the garbling Tauntaun. "…I'm harder to kill than most people would like."

* * *

It was colder out there than she'd been ready for. Faith kept her legs clasped around the Tauntaun's body underneath her both for balance and for what moderate warmth it provided. Raising the infrared binoculars: nothing. All her cursing was in her head; it was too cold to open your mouth. Goggles, scarf swaddled around her head. They'd had slayers in cold climates, right? They didn't die, right?

She headed in the direction Luke and Dawn were supposed to have gone. At least that's what the little numbers on the binoculars' screen told her. She kept going. Snow and ice and dark. She hoped Dawn had had sense enough to wear enough clothes for this. She must be, what, eighteen? Eighteen-year-olds didn't have sense.

The beast underneath her was gurgling more now, dragging cold air into its icy nostrils. Binoculars again. Still nothing. She wished she had two pairs of bantha boots. She shouldn't have made fun of Luke for them. She would have to remember to apologize about that. Binoculars again. Nothing. She wanted to throw them as far as she could. Useless. She put them up to her eyes again anyway.

_Use the force, Faith._

She nearly fell off the Tauntaun whirling around for the source of that voice. She knew it.

_Use the force._

"Ben? How? Where?" Words that got lost in the swirling cold. Nothing there. Nothing around her but cold. And then she was falling down into it, the Tauntaun collapsing under her. "What the—?" Its chest heaved, bringing in more of the cold air that was freezing it from within. Faith dragged her leg out from underneath. It was dying. She laid a hand on its wooly neck. "Fuck, I'm sorry, fuck…." She shouldn't have come out here like this. It was getting cold and she was getting colder. "Fuck…." And everybody always said she was too hot-headed.

She started to bring the binoculars up to her eyes again, and they slipped right out of her numb fingers. Bending to pick them up.

_Faith._

She shot straight up again.

"Ben?" She felt the Force tugging at her. He wasn't what she needed to be looking for. Closing her eyes, she reached out, feeling along the Force's pathways. _Luke?_

White cold.

_Luke?_ _C'mon, Luke, where are you?_

A faint stirring and she pulled herself along the string of it, like a climber, hand over fist, mentally. Physically staggering against the wind and snow. She couldn't see the Tauntaun anymore.

Her mind whispered along the tendrils of the Force spread out in front of her, looking for life.

_Faith?_ Faint.

_Finally. It's about— Hey, wait…Dawn?_

_Faith?_

_Okay, nobody told me this was gonna be a conference call. How can you even— _

_Faith, we need you…._

_Well, now there's something you don't hear—_ She couldn't stop herself, so it was probably for the best that she was cut off.

_Faith, listen—_

The slayer walked, blindly, feet one in front of the other. _I am, but you gotta tell me—_

And then her voice wasn't in her head, but making a scream into the muffling around her mouth as the ground opened up beneath her and she was dropping down into a cave. A cave of snow and ice. Like everything on this planet. Crystalline walls. Only the slayer in her kept her from breaking something as she hit the icy bottom. She rolled into a crouch, throwing the goggles up onto her head as she looked around.

"Luke?" A pause. "Dawn?" The walls creaked around her and back in the depths of the cave. It was dark enough that even she could barely see. She brought her lightsaber flaring to light. It was not good for seeing.

"Luke?" She was saying it out loud. _Luke?_

Walking. The ice grinding around her. She whirled at every sound. One low roar like another like another.

_Faith?_

_Where are you? Where's Luke?_

"Look out!"

It took Faith a second to recognize that the words were out in the air now. That Dawn was speaking to her from some distance where she could be heard about some danger that was also in hearing distance, if she could just see something beyond the tip of her lightsaber, the roaring, until that split second was too long for her to be standing still and something slammed into the side of her shoulder, flinging her against the wall of the cave. Her lightsaber took its light with it as it flew from her hand, illuminating sections of the cave: Dawn and Luke upside down, Luke groaning into consciousness with blood caked on the side of his face, something large and white and moving.

"Shit!"

Faith shook off the stars behind her eyelids and dove across the floor for the blue of her weapon, narrowly avoiding some sort of appendage aiming for her head.

"Faith?" This time it was Luke, a little groggy.

"Okay, wakey-wakey—" She was talking fast and there was only that small amount of light that she hadn't quite reached and two people she knew hanging from their feet from the top of the ice cave and "we don't have time for introductions again. I'm Faith, you're Luke, that's Dawn, who's yelling really loud by the way, and what the hell is _that_?"

It came roaring out of the darkness at her, as if in answer. And she'd just gotten her fingers on the lightsaber, but now she'd lost it as she turned to face one thing she knew pretty well how to fight. The slayer knew how to fight this. So it did. And she did, by extension. And Dawn was yelling at her to get her down. And Luke was reaching out his hand towards his lightsaber, buried in the snow.

Her hands collided with furry body over and over. And sometimes it was colliding with her.

"Abominable snowman!" This from Dawn.

"Sorta past the identification part now." Faith managed to grunt it out as the thing took a swipe at her head and caught her a glancing blow. She stumbled back.

"Faith!"

Luke had the lightsaber and had cut his boots loose. He tumbled down, reaching for Faith's lightsaber, throwing it to her. The slayer reached out and caught it, turning to cut at the beast as it was going for Luke and Dawn.

An arm fell to the ground. It was still dark. She hoped it only had one other.

Roaring in front of her, ear splitting. Then Dawn yelling for someone to cut her down as the flailing beast came near her. Luke fumbling with his weapon in numb hands, so Faith moved towards the younger Summers and let her weapon go for something other than a target, freeing Dawn just as that heavy paw came down on the side of her head and knocked her into darkness.

* * *

"Why does it have to be so cold?"

Faith's eyes blinked open into something that wasn't white and wasn't of the snow or ice variety. In fact, it looked suspiciously like—

"What the hell am I doing in your bedroom?"

"A girl could ask you the same thing." That girl was a certain slayer Faith knew. "Especially since you're the one that made it all cold." They were in the bed together.

Faith had the distinct impression that she was naked under the sheets. While this shouldn't have made her blush, it did. So she kept talking, keeping it light. "Cold? Oh, that's just my heart."

Buffy just stared at Faith.

"That was supposed to be a joke, B."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize we were to the point of joking about your homicidal tendencies."

"We're not. I was just…." The mumbling trailed off, having no where else to go, really. "Why am I here again, 'cause there was just this thing that I was fighting…." She made as if to climb out.

Buffy pulled the sheets up tighter around her neck. "Hey, wait, you can't get out! That's only going to make it colder."

Faith looked back at the other girl. "You can't be serious. You just said I was a killer. That's what you wanna be in bed with?"

"That's what I'm always in bed with."

Brown eyes met green. "What's with the philosophical bull—?" A pause. "Wait, this is a dream, isn't it?" Faith stopped pushing the covers back.

"I didn't say it wasn't."

"Well, that's a fat lot of help. Thanks." Faith rolled her eyes and moved again to get out.

"Faith. Faith!" Buffy had to say it twice before the other girl stopped. Faith stopped, but she didn't turn to look. Which left Buffy talking to her back. "Faith, please. It'll be too cold for both of us. You have to stay."

"I have to, huh?"

"Well, maybe not in the strictest sense. But I need you."

Faith stared for a moment across that small bit of double bed. "I think I just missed somethin' because it sure sounded like you just said—"

"I need you, Faith."

"B—"

* * *

"Put her more in the middle. Behind you."

Faith opened her eyes to darkness, groaning a little as her head immediately reminded her that it was still attached. Everything smelled metallic, sharp. Blood.

"I'm trying! Everything's slippery and gross. And she's saying my sister's name…why is she doing that?"

"Bee? Your sister's name is—?"

"Not bee like buzz. B like Buffy." It dawned on her that this really wasn't very illuminating. "Oh, nevermind."

Faith's mouth felt like it was full of cotton. "B? Huh?" She was still cold. She moved to get where it was light. It got colder.

"See, she's doing it again!" and "Is she waking up?"

"Wha—?"

Luke's voice: "It's okay. Stay still and you'll keep warm."

She was here. This was not Buffy's bedroom anymore. Faith allowed herself to relax and allowed Luke and Dawn to push her back further into the dead beast, which was cut open and bloody and enough to keep them warm until morning.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Life got in the way of this one a bit, but, with the help of the rather strange combination of Miike Snow and Camera Obscura on random repeat, I was able to push through. As always, grateful for your thoughts!

* * *

The slash marks across Faith's face were scabbed over by morning. The florid bruise on her cheekbone had already turned from purple to greenish by the time the snowspeeder spotted them against the snow. And, unlike Luke, whose face was still bloody and swollen, she didn't need to go skinny dipping in the bacta tank when they made it back to base.

She was going to have to tease him about that.

If they ever got time. The same speeder that had picked them up spotted the Imperial droid. The Empire wouldn't be far behind. By the time they got back to the base, it was already full of people scrambling to prepare.

An official-looking woman met her coming down a corridor and thrust a gun into her hands. "Commander Summers, we have you monitoring the evacuation."

"But monitoring isn't my—" The other woman was already gone down the icy hallway. "—thing."

"And it doesn't usually involve armaments." Dawn appeared behind her, from another medical room, if the bandaged fingers were any indication.

Just as Faith was turning to fire off her retort, a red blur came running, enveloping Dawn in a hug and then stunning the slayer with an embrace for her, too.

"Ohmygod, Dawn! Faith! When we didn't hear back last night…."

Faith, frozen. The girl she'd once held hostage, in that circle she'd wanted to be in, friend of the slayer she wanted to be, someone she'd tried to replace. There were arms around her. Gun crushed against her chest between them. What do you say? Point the barrel elsewhere.

"Now, see, you coulda told me you and Tara wanted a threesome."

Willow shrank back from that studied grin. "What?" Hugging those arms to her own chest, aware of the other girl's. "But I didn't…." Blushing.

"Yeah, I think you forgot who you were dealing with, Willow." Dawn used the moment of confusion between the two to grab the blaster from the slayer's hands, jolting Faith's eyes from Willow back to her new defenselessness.

"Hey! I was going to monitor with that! You've got frostbite…you can't even shoot straight! And now you get to run off killing people?"

Dawn tightened her grip on the gun to prove she could hold it, bandages or no. "Faith, it's the Empire." As if she was explaining it to a child. "This is war."

"When is it not?" A genuine question.

Dawn chose to take it as rhetorical. "Anyway, there'll be fighting and some of us can't kill with our bare hands." She hugged the weapon to her chest. The set of her jaw was familiar. Summers. "You still have your lightsaber. You can be hall monitor with that."

"What do you mean, hall—?"

Dawn didn't let her finish. "And I thought you didn't even want to 'monitor' anyway. Killing, mayhem…that's more your style."

Willow was opening her mouth to say something, but Faith beat her to it. "Okay, you know what? Fuck you. I'm tryin' to leave the past where it is, but you gotta keep—"

"Oh, right. It's behind you. When are you gonna stop using my last name, then?" Dawn's voice was attracting the attention of some of the Rebel troops rushing by them in the corridor. "You're the one that keeps trying to be my sister."

"Dawn." The redhead's warning cut in this time.

Faith's eyes were dark, unreadable. She'd just talked to that sister. To be more accurate, had shared frustratingly vague dream conversation under awkward, naked circumstances with her. Not that she was planning on telling them any of that. "Yeah, well, soon as I get a chance to print up new business cards, you'll be the first to get one." She wanted to punch the ice wall. It would hurt. "And, anyway, I just saved your ass out there in case you've got some sort of early onset—"

Willow stepped between them, one hand on Dawn's shoulder and another, ever so lightly, on the slayer's tense one. "Faith's got a point there, Dawnie. She went after you. She wouldn't even let Han help." She took a breath, still watching Dawn. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Faith, pointedly looking elsewhere, trying to act both like it was no big deal and like it was something somebody ought to be grateful for. Willow noticed that her fingers were still touching the slayer. She shifted her eyes firmly back to Dawn. "Look, I know. I've had a problem letting the past go, too, but I think Faith's on our side now and we don't have Buffy—"

Dawn's eyes narrowed as she saw the slayer's jaw twitch slightly at the name.

"—and Faith's practically a Jedi like Luke."

The slayer opened her mouth to say there wasn't any _like_ to it since they'd started at the same time and there was a lot more _practically_ for both of them, but then something else hit her. "Speakin' of Jedi stuff, how were you able to do the whole mind talking thing?"

"Mind talking?" This from Willow. "Like telepathy?" Turning to Dawn, eyes wide. "You can do that?"

"Well, I didn't know I could until I did because I heard her first." Pointing at Faith.

The redhead whirled to follow the direction of that finger. "Hold on, you're telepathic, too, Faith?"

The slayer could swear she caught a flash of envy there. She filed it away, shrugging. "Dunno. Just heard Ben in my head and he said to use the Force so I guess he helped me reach along it looking for Luke and—" She turned to Dawn. "Wait, so does that mean you feel it, too? The Force?"

Willow stared at the two of them in turn. "Well…Faith, you're a slayer, and maybe that's what makes you attuned to it, like you were different there makes you different here, except, you know, differently." Talking faster as she worked it out in her head. "And, Dawn, you were made from—" She winced a little at her word choice. Dawn acted like she didn't hear. "—you share Buffy's blood, and she's a slayer, so I guess…."

Dawn said what they all were thinking. "I could be a Jedi, too?"

Faith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure couldn't be in a club where a Summers wasn't in it, too."

"You're just jealous that you don't get to be special anymore."

"Anymore?" Faith jumped on that. "I think your sister already took care of that 'cause, you know, Chosen Second just doesn't have the same ring to it." But Buffy needed her. She had said it. In that dream. Who would believe it?

Dawn's words cut into Faith's reverie. "Yeah, after everything that happened, I'm really sorry _you_ weren't the Chosen One." Eyes flashing. "And you aren't even _trying_ to find her! She's here somewhere and you don't care because you're still jealous of her!" Three years of looking. Nothing.

"You don't know what I care about!" Faith's own eyes dark and wild. "And you've made it pretty damn clear she wouldn't wanna see me anyway!"

Dawn was still rushing, headlong. "Or who knows, maybe you don't even care because you still want her dead! Maybe _you_ did something to her!"

Dawn was yelling now and crying and she was an eighteen-year-old key who didn't have any family, make believe or not, stuck in a far off galaxy and Faith was yelling that she didn't do anything and Willow was stepping in between the two of them again. "Both of you, stop it! We all miss Buffy." Willow's eyes turning inward for just a second, long enough for Faith to see, before Willow saw her seeing and both of their eyes skittered away as if they hadn't. Adamant. "We all want her back and we'll find her. But this universe needs Jedis so maybe it needs both of you and if you kill each other that's not going to do anyone any good!"

"And to think Ben was worried there weren't enough Jedis left."

All three of them turned to face the young man joining them, already in his flight suit. He raised an eyebrow at Faith. "Everything okay here?"

Faith could feel the calm he was trying to exert, the familiarity of the Force around him, placing her turmoil in stark relief. But it was Dawn who answered.

"Luke!" Furiously wiping the tears off her face. "Last I saw, you were in that bacteria thing and—" She touched the healing cuts on one side of his face. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Luke was unsure what to do about the beautiful young woman touching him. All he could do was stare. She might be a Jedi like him!

"All pilots to their stations." The loudspeaker cut them short. "All pilots to their stations."

Luke gave Dawn a half smile. "That's me. The Empire must be here." Then turning to Faith. "I owe you one for finding me, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. They're callin' you. You fight 'em up there and I'll get all monitor on their asses down here." She was smiling. This was action the two of them were used to.

"I know." He was starting to go. Other pilots were already rushing down the corridor. "I know, but I needed to tell you that Ben talked to me, too." He saw the flinch of sadness in Faith, quickly masked over. "He's still with us somehow. He said we have to go find some Jedi master in the Dagobah system. Someone to train with—"

"Wait, so I gotta go all over the galaxy so some pseudo-Giles can make me run in his hamster wheel?"

"Well, _I'm_ ready to train." Dawn stepping up between them.

"Sure you are…good soldier like your sister."

"You don't know anything about her!"

"Right, yeah…nothing."

Luke stepped in before Dawn could snap back. "Okay, I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but, Faith, Ben said it would help us be ready for what's coming—this is someone Ben trusts." He glanced over at Dawn. "And maybe you need to come, too, if you can feel the Force."

Willow jumped in. "And I asked Faith earlier—didn't I, Faith?—because I used to deal with mystical stuff back home, Tara and I—" Deep breath. It'd been three years. Tara wasn't here. She'd probably moved on. "I used to deal with stuff like this and I was able to help Buffy—more with the magic, but it was helpful!—and maybe this Jedi master guy would talk to me?" She looked back and forth between Luke and Faith, hopeful.

"Gonna be kinda crowded in Luke's X-Wing."

Luke shrugged. "I bet we can talk Leia into getting us a bigger ship. We could leave right after the evacuation is done. It'll be good, Faith. We'll finally know what we're doing—"

"All pilots to their stations."

"—and if Willow and Dawn have the potential, they should come. We don't know what's out there." He gestured towards the world outside the icy cave. "Aside from the Empire, that is…I've gotta go. Wish me luck!"

Except Faith did know one thing that was out there as she watched him go. She tested the thread of connection inside her. Still there. Ben had helped her stumble on Luke. With training, could she follow Buffy? Find Buffy, she meant. And didn't she already know where to start? Hadn't she known that for a while now? Sand. A cry cut off. Grains filling the shallow depression next to her in the dune.

A far-off explosion sent a cloud of icy dust down on them and then all of them were scrambling to get to the places they needed to be.

* * *

"You pick _now_ to take apart the hyperdrive? Right when I'm trying to get off of this icy rock?"

Han got an answering yowl from the Wookie. Tools strewn on the floor around the Falcon. Parts had been taken out. Another explosion rocked the docking bay's cavern. It sounded like things were getting closer.

"Well, put it back together! They're already getting the transports ready to go, and I don't want the Empire taking potshots at the last one out!"

"So, you're planning on taking on the Empire with a monkey wrench?" Faith had to yell above the chaos of preparations in the hanger. "And to think I was gripin' about Dawn leavin' me with just my lightsaber."

Han looked over from the mess of wires hanging down from a control panel, spotted Faith, and then went back to the wires. "Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking…I probably should just try blowing some of my hot air at them."

Faith winced a little. "Yeah, about that…I didn't mean—"

"Hey, no worries. What's important is that you found Luke and Dawn out there and got them back. Leia was a wreck until the speeder found you."

"—it's just that I'm used to doing this sort of thing. I'm made for it and—"

Han looked down at her again, acknowledging her apology. "Look, I know you've got some sort of power I couldn't dream of and I'm the last person to knock someone for goin' it alone—"

"So, I sure hope you're not going to give her a lecture about staying with the group right as you're about to take off and leave the Rebellion."

"Huh?" Faith turned to find Leia threading her way through the hanger towards them, frown firmly in place, and fixed on Han.

"Right after the evacuation. He's leaving." The Princess's arms were crossed over her chest. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

Han met Faith's eyebrow with a shrug, aiming his comment at Leia. "I don't know either. I've been trying to leave for three years. "

"But you didn't."

"You didn't want me to." A grin played at the corner of his mouth. Guns boomed in the distance.

"_I_ had nothing to do with it."

"I think _you_ want me to stay."

"_The Rebellion_ needs good people." Leia gestured at the slayer for emphasis. "It needs people like Faith, who stay to help their friends."

Faith stared. Was she this? She almost hated to say anything. "Um, Leia?" Those intense eyes swinging around to her as she spoke. "Luke didn't happen to mention anything about us going, did he?"

An eyebrow. Faith could feel every inch of its royalty. An explosion not too far off sent them all bracing against what they could reach for.

"He didn't?" He didn't. Of course he hadn't wanted to tell her. Faith cleared her throat. "About the training? Yeah, um…it's a Jedi thing, apparently, and, you know, good preparation and…." It sort of wasn't fair that Giles wasn't here to appreciate this. "…someplace called Dagobah."

"Dagobah?" From behind Han, Chewbacca echoed the incredulity. "I hear ya, Chewie. It's a swamp."

"You and Luke are leaving to go train in a _swamp_?" Leia stared.

Who was she kidding? "Don't look at me…Luke says Ben talked to him." More staring, from everyone now. "I know. I mean, he talked to me, too, but he didn't say that, which was probably good because training really isn't my thing and…." Faith, trailing off, thought she might have been hanging around Willow too much. There was still a lot of staring.

"Well, you have fun with that." Han's whistle made clear just how much fun.

Leia snapped at him. "Don't try to talk her out of it so she can run off with you on one of your crazy adventures!"

"Who said I was trying to?" Han yelled right back, his voice almost lost as the walls shook with another blast. "Anyway, this whole little detour I'm on now was all a crazy adventure for you!"

"And now I can see how easily replaced I am!" The Princess's eyes were fire.

Faith threw her hands up. "Now, wait…I'm not replacing any—" Another blast shook Han off his ladder. Several of the speeders were coming back in with blaster marks. Many more weren't returning. "Get down!" One of the speeders couldn't slow in time and crashed into the wall of the entry, sending debris flying. Faith grabbed Leia and pulled her with her to the ground.

"Get her to her evacuation ship!" Han was pointing the two of them to the exit and gesturing with his other hand at Chewie, who was trying to pick through the fallen tools.

"Don't tell me where to go!" Yelling to be heard. "Han, the Rebellion needs you!"

"Is that who needs me?" Over his shoulder as he stuffed wires back in and closed the panel door.

Leia's eyes thunderous, fixed on him. "I don't have time for this!"

Faith grabbed her where she was standing, hearing the sound of laser fire. She spotted Luke running in through the doorway, haggard, without a ship. "Newsflash: none of us do…." But who was listening?

Han was still yelling down at Leia. "Well, then you'll have plenty of time to think about it while I'm paying off some debts on Tatooine!"

Tatooine.

Faith's head jerked up at the word and what it meant. Who it meant. She was still staring when Luke got to them, breathless.

"Han, can you get it running? We're gonna need those guns! Imperial troops aren't too far behind!"

From across the hanger, Faith could see Willow and Dawn ushering the last of the staff down a corridor to another docking bay with the transports. Their eyes met across the room and, as the last personnel were through the doorway, they came running.

Until everything went to hell.

Faith saw one wall bulge and then blow wide open and she was diving for Leia to get her down and the two of them made a tangle on the floor. Faith springing up with her lightsaber on, Luke skidding over to meet Willow and Dawn in the middle, Leia coming up with her blaster firing into the hole in the ice. Black around the edges, smoke. Then troops firing through at them. Han scrambling on the top of the Falcon, shutting panels., yelling Chewie sweeping tools aside with one furry hand, taking aim with the crossbow in his other. Blasts going past them, cutting off the corridor to the transports. Not that they thought there would be any easy evacuation for them now.

Scattered laser fire from some of the pilots stuck in there with them. Faith heard Leia calling out orders for them to get in their ships and go. Sometimes you needed someone to give orders. Chewie yowled at Han and hurried inside the Falcon to get to the ship's gun. More troops pouring in. Faith's lightsaber blocking the shots as they came. Leia firing over her shoulder at them. A cry and Faith turned to look to see if she'd been hit. Near miss, but Leia was jerking her out of the path of another and the two of them pushed closer to where Luke and Willow and Dawn were pinned.

Willow yelling Faith's name, and she must've misheard, but the redhead was looking at her and Faith could only spare a glance, turning away from the shot Willow was trying to warn her about. It tore a hole in the padding of her parka's sleeve. Burning. Turning back to block another shot, her slayer operating at high speed, anticipating. Luke a little ways away, keeping the fire from getting to Willow and Dawn.

The Imperial troops were setting up a big gun.

Faith knew she needed to get up there. To stop them. Halfway into her charge. Then a high-pitched scream behind her.

Leia yelling: "Dawn!"

Dawn's scream for Willow, struggling under a crate of equipment that had tumbled on her, pinning her. Faith stopping in her tracks, turning, but not able to get to them, her lightsaber not the offensive weapon she needed from this distance. Dawn calling her name—Faith's name!—this time, and Faith was turning, and the younger Summers was tossing her the blaster through the air, eyes meeting over it, and Faith caught it, bringing it around in one sweep to take out five advancing stormtroopers. Mowing them down like nothing. A few of them screamed. Shutting her ears and covering for Dawn and Luke as they pushed the crate off Willow and helped her, running towards another ship.

"Go!"

No time to discuss it. Probably better. Certainly familiar.

"But Faith—"

"I'm not going to Dagobah! Just get out of here!" Everything required screaming.

Willow and Dawn stumbling for the gangplank of that ship. Luke staring. "Faith, I thought—Ben said—"

Then a cold fist in her stomach and, turning back, she saw Vader's black against the icy white.

Luke did, too.

And Leia did, eyes narrowing, remembering what had been done to her before. She pointed the blaster, only to have it fly from her hand with a flick of Vader's wrist. Faith turned to keep the laser fire off of her. Luke still standing, staring. The Falcon's gun picking off the some of the troopers. Luke standing.

"Luke, go!"

He was fixed, staring at the black figure walking towards him through the firefight. Faith could feel the anger streaming off of him. Her own fear, adrenaline.

A yell from Dawn as the stormtroopers came running and were going to cut them off from the ship. Faith fired and killed more, but more were coming.

"Luke! Dawn and Willow…!"

Somebody was going to get killed, and with Luke just standing there…. Faith closed the gap at slayer speed, appearing in front of Vader, between him and Luke, feeling more than seeing Luke's clenched teeth and final resignation, and then she wasn't feeling anything as she focused on meeting the red blade coming down at her.

"You won't be able to protect him forever." That deep voice rumbling. Faith shook her head to clear it. Really the slayer now—parry for parry. Somewhere Luke was getting away to where she ought to be going, but wasn't.

"Yeah, you'll find I'm pretty hard to get rid of." Getting pushed back, feeling the blade of light open up a gash down the front of her jacket. Move faster.

"The Dark Side is always waiting." Implacable. Face a reflection.

Sweating as she ducked another. Arms moving on their own, trying to find the kill in this. Somewhere else guns taking down the stormtroopers who suddenly had nothing to fire at. "Might be more tempting if it had a cooler name."

"It is tempting to you. The turmoil of your feelings…."

He might as well have been inside her. Voice in her head. Her slashes missing their mark. Wild.

"Fuckin' chatterbox bad guys." Breath. "Always goin' for the—"

"You are more than this." He paused and she tried to keep it out of her head, tried to keep any glimpse of— "And perhaps she is as well."

"No!" The hoarse scream ripped out of her as she flashed her lightsaber down on him, faster, looking for any opening, pushing, pushing him back. He would not do that. She wouldn't let him. Seething. Red behind her eyes. She couldn't see anything of his and it didn't matter because he was a thing to kill and she was a killer until a laser beam flashed by them and exploded in a show of sparks and stacked cargo tumbling over towards both of them, between them, and Faith finally heard her name in the middle of everything. How long had Han been saying it? Standing on the lowered ramp into the Falcon, firing his blaster to keep off the stormtroopers, Leia behind him doing the same. Beckoning her. And there really was no choice then but to run, so that the Falcon could go, so that Leia and Han and Chewie could go. So that the four of them could blast their way out of there for Tatooine.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry not to give y'all a full week to digest the previous chapter. I hope y'all will forgive me. Guess I was just chompin' at the bit over here!

* * *

Nothing ever works out as planned.

Whatever idea Faith might have had of Tatooine got lost in a chase across the galaxy, at frustratingly less-than-hyper speeds, the Empire right behind them.

"What do you mean the hyperdrive doesn't work!?!" Han scrambled all over the cockpit, managing still to glare his desire for an explanation from Chewie, also rushing from instrument panel to instrument panel.

"It's got to work! Look at those Destroyers!" Leia was bracing in the doorway. They were the last ones off the cold planet.

"Oh god…." This last under Faith's breath as she fought to keep whatever was in her stomach where it belonged. The Falcon dove straight down in between the two Imperial ships. Somewhere above them there was evasive action. Hell, they were doing their own evasive action, four persistent TIE fighters on their tail. Everything heaved.

Leia was looking between the scene outside, uncomfortably unchanging, and Han, who stared at the controls as though he could will them to work.

He saw her looking and met her eyes. "I really don't know how we're gonna get out of this one." He blew out a breath and then pushed the controls for another sharp turn. The deflector shield light was blinking. Chewie was yowling, still pulling at wires.

An impact and the slayer nearly fell out of her seat. Leia caught her by the shoulders, holding the both of them upright, and Faith wanted to say something about being sorry that she'd thrown her down the garbage shoot what seemed like so long ago. If she could've gotten it past the bile rising in her throat.

"What'd we hit?" All eyes were on Chewie, who yowled right back at them, throwing furry paws up into the air.

TIE fighters danced around them. The Destroyers huddled close. Faith could feel Vader on one of them. Dark, cold, waiting.

Another jolt.

Around Faith there were words shouted: _asteroid_ and _look out_ and _over there_ and _they can't follow us in here_. Everything speeding by. Han scrambling with some plan.

The slayer saw none of it. Cold, waiting.

Maybe she should be with Luke.

A lot of things she should have done.

Maybe none of it mattered. The dark was waiting anyway. It had been inside her head. It knew her. It had seen the image she couldn't keep out of her head. Vader had seen Buffy there. Faith had given her away.

"This is suicide!" Leia was yelling at Han as they lurched out of the way of another oncoming asteroid and he was yelling back that they needed to go closer to one, find someplace to hide. Faith tumbled onto all fours on the floor.

"Faith! Are you—?" Leia grabbed to catch her but caught only the parka's stuffing spilling from one of the holes Vader had made. The slayer jerked away, staggering down the corridor to secret herself up in the gunport. Threepio, seeing her breeze past, kept his question about the status of the hyperdrive to himself.  


* * *

  
They'd taken shelter in a cave, licking their wounds as the Empire's depth charges boomed far away on the asteroid's surface. They'd left Faith alone.

There was a loud thwack on the glass in front of her. A sucking sound, some horrific mouth pressing at the pane.

Faith shook the thoughts out of her head and was up and out of the gunport, grabbing a blaster and running by the murmuring voices still trying to repair the hyperdrive.

Heads looked up. "Faith?"

But she was past and outside into the cave, spraying laser fire at the creature stuck to the glass. It fell off and down and the ground roiled under her. More shapes flew past and more shooting and if Tippi Hedren'd had a blaster she'd have showed those birds who was in control.

Voices behind her and the slayer swung around. Leia and Han flinched out of the line of fire.

"Faith?"

Everyone was staring.

And then another creature swept down between them and everyone jerked into action. Blasters pointed and firing and the whole of the ground roiling under their feet until the light dawned in Han's eyes as he recognized these were things that lived inside something else. As in they were inside something else. He screamed for them to get inside.

Nothing ever works out as planned.

Blasting their way out of the giant worm they'd thought was a cave. It couldn't have been a cave. Oh, no.

Right back into the Empire's waiting hands as the asteroid field's edge. Still without a hyperdrive. Faith braced herself against the cockpit's doorway, gun cradled in her arms.

Nothing ever works out as planned.

But Han, as ever, ingenious at wiggling out of tight spots, took a suicide run at the Empire. Leia covered her face when they drove in, laser fire narrowly missing all around them. Faith watched Han nestle them right against the belly of the beast, out of scanner range against the Destroyer's hull. Undetectable in plain sight. They waited. They stayed still.

When the Empire gave up to move on, it let loose its trash before slipping into hyperspace, leaving them to drift away unseen with the rest of the garbage.  


* * *

  
"How did you say you knew this guy again?"

They'd limped to a city in the clouds. As Faith stepped off the Falcon, gun in hand, she looked over the side of the landing pad out into the nothing they were hanging in. How did they stay where they were? How did they not fall? Leia was more concerned with the figure coming through the station's doorway to meet them.

"Old friend." Han was watching, too. Chewie grunted and Han brushed him off. "Oh, that was a long time ago, I'm sure he's forgotten." He ignored Leia rolling her eyes. "I'm sure Lando'll be able to get us fixed up in no time."

Faith stepped over next to them. "What is it with black men and capes in this universe?"

And then Lando was on them. "You've got a lot of nerve coming here." At his words, Leia and Chewie and Faith all braced. But he spread his arms wide, pulling Han into an embrace. "How're you doing, you old pirate?" Chewie relaxed, and Leia still had an eyebrow raised, watching. Faith's face was shadowed and unreadable.

"Well, I—" Han struggled back into his swagger. "Well, you know how it is. Just stopped in for a few repairs." Gesturing over his shoulder at the Falcon.

Lando's eyes jumped to scan the hull. "What've you done to my ship!?!"

Faith's fingers tightened on her gun as Han put his hands up in the air.

"Hey, now! I won her fair and square…."

Lando opened his mouth, but then noticed Leia and Faith standing there. "Well, hello. What have we here? Lando Calrissian, at your service." Bending over to kiss Leia's hand. Slim wintery figure imbued with all that inherent royal dignity, even after the frantic chase they'd just come from. Eyebrow still resolutely arched. He nodded his head, and turned then to the slayer, a more fervent beauty, her dark, wild hair falling down over her top, the lean curves of her shoulders. His eyes traveled down to the promise of her breasts, down to slim thighs clothed in gray. "It truly is a—"

"You a smuggler, too?" Faith pasted on a wry smile and sauntered over to lean against Han's shoulder, cocking her hip out.

Lando glanced and met Han's wide eyes. Then back to Faith. "I would characterize myself as more of a businessman these—"

"Oh. Well, you know, that's a shame. 'Cause I like things better when they're just a little bit bad." She swatted Han on the ass and he yelped, brow furrowed—a mirror of Leia's—as he stared. Faith sauntered for the doorway.

"Well, sure, I do, too." Lando rushed, breathless, after her, catching up quickly so he could usher her through the doorway like a proper host. "I have somewhat of a reputation, as Han can I'm sure attest…."

Leia was still staring.

From beside her, Threepio leaned in. "I would say that Mistress Faith appears to be feeling better."

"So it would seem."  


* * *

  
As soon as the door closed, and their tour guide had left them alone, Leia whirled on Faith. "What game are you playing at here?"

Faith just raised an eyebrow, slouching into a chair. "Don't get your panties in a wad, Princess. You wanted to make sure Lando repaired the Falcon, and I just gave him a little extra incentive."

"A little extra incentive!? You practically—"

"Leia, she was just trying to help." Han stepped in between the two, and got an earful for it.

"Oh, I have no doubt you enjoyed it, too!"

Han glanced in between Faith, who was looking out the window, and Leia. "Now, wait just a minute! That was her…I didn't do anything! And, anyway, Faith's on target here. Lando likes to think of himself as a smooth operator. I mean, just look at how he was with you!" Now he was pointing fingers.

Leia's jaw was set. "Well, I don't trust him."

"See, now there's something Princess and I agree on." Faith turned from the empty sky outside.

Leia's eyes were still fiery. "But you just came on to—"

"Look, I played to his weakness to get what we wanted. What's wrong with that?" She swiveled her chair around and stood up. "C'mon, Chewie. Let's leave these two lovebirds to it and figure out where Threepio wandered off to."

Startled, Leia looked around. "I thought he was right with us. Where could he have—?"

"Good thing somebody around here is paying attention." Faith checked her blaster and stepped out into the hallway, the Wookie beside her.  


* * *

  
They found him in pieces. In a room full of droid parts. It stank of metal and oil. Faith didn't like it.

Chewie growled, grabbing various parts of the protocol droid from conveyor belts. The slayer pointed her gun at anything that moved. By the time they got out of there, her whole head was buzzing.

"You'd better get him back to Han and Leia. I'm gonna take a look around."

Chewie cocked his head.

She took her hand away from her forehead, forcing her face into something approximating reassurance. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be alright. Not like I ain't armed." She held up her blaster. Below it, her lightsaber was still clipped to the utility belt slung low on her hips. She was plenty armed.

He gave her one last huff before trotting back the way they'd come.

She turned back to the station around her. A mining community in the middle of the sky digging—or whatever the equivalent was—its way through the workday. A bustle of perfectly normal activity. So why the buzz in her head? It made it hard to think. She tried a deep breath. Focus. Ben would've had her focus. Find the Force around her. She tried to tamp down the slayer's alert so that she could do that. Her slayer wanted to prowl. It recognized something…. She shook her head, walking, watching, her mind running down its own pathways. If she could just untangle the strands of the Force….

The slayer stopped in front of a doorway.

And then it came through. Cold, dark.

"Oh, shit." Not enough time before the door hissed open and Vader was there, standing at the head of a long table. Waiting for her.

In a flash, her blaster was up and then flying out of her hand to clatter uselessly along the floor at the Sith Lord's feet. She didn't even watch it go, grasping instead for her lightsaber, edging around the table with the blue blade in front of her. The door shut behind her.

"Don't mean to ruin a perfectly creepy stalking project, but you're not my type."

"Indeed."

Faith could feel him pressing in. He would not find Buffy in there, not this time! She kept talking, wishing he would raise his blade. Inching closer. "And if your spy guys told you Luke was here, you probably ought to fire 'em because today ain't your lucky day to kill off the rest of the Skywalker—."

He did not wait for her to finish. "What is a slayer?"

Faith froze, her mouth hanging open.

"Your thoughts betray you. You and the one who fills your thoughts—you think of yourselves as slayers. What is that, beyond a killer?"

The voice was almost curious.

Her whole mouth felt dry and she had to blink to make sure her lightsaber was still on guard in front of her. Reflexively, even though she knew she shouldn't, she started to reach out to touch her connection over space and time with Buffy—

But behind her, the door hissed open again, and she glanced back, seeing Han and Leia and Chewbacca there, with Threepio in pieces on his back. Han's blaster came up and then flew into the same corner with hers. Chewie roared and Leia yelled her name. Faith looked back to Vader and then half turned, thinking that, if she could just get them all back through that door, they could run.

But she felt herself jerked taut, a hand closing around her throat. She grasped to pull it away, but found nothing there, no tangible hand. Her lightsaber fell to the floor. Lando was shrugging his apologies.

"Faith, it's Vader!" Like she hadn't figured that out. Leia had her blaster pointed, but it wavered as Faith stiffened, trying to gasp at breath. A few feet away, Vader's hand tightened around an invisible neck. Faith reached out a hand of her own, meaning to take a step in one direction or another, but finding the world narrowing in front of her instead.

And then everything went black.

* * *

To give them credit, it did not take them long to decide that she was different. On waking, she'd ripped free of the flimsy restraints that would have been enough for a human. The slayer, snarling, looked for a weapon.

Only to be tossed like so much trash against the wall, hard. A needle jammed in her neck. Her limbs no longer cooperating. From somewhere not far off, she'd heard other voices she knew. Screams. Leia. Han. Even Chewbacca's wailing roar.

Somewhere in there was her own.

She knew by the hoarseness in her throat. There was pain inside her head. Burns against her skin. The slayer scrambling to buck against it, but all it could do was heal it so it could happen again.

Words around her.

"Remarkable strength."

"Her resistance, my lord."

"Yes."

Impossible to tell even where the pain was coming from. Droids floating. Doing the inhuman work. Her body arching off of the table without her telling it anything. Hearing blood in her head. Leia's screams, before they stopped.

Somebody ask her a question!

She felt Vader there, watching.

The room swimming. Pain for no reason. Bright lights behind her eyes. Heal thyself, over and over and over. Maybe this was hell. Maybe all along it had been, building her up to something else for the pleasure of tearing her back down. How far.

_Ben?_

She wasn't sure what was in her mind. Calling out to nothing. A dead man.

_Luke?_

Limbs not doing what she asked. What she needed.

_B?_

Her whole body screaming for anything—

_Faith?_

Her breath hitched in her throat. Her mind grasped at the connection. Had to focus. _God, B, please…._

_You're not real._ The voice trembled a little in her head. Faith remembered it different. More certain. More certain with Faith. Buffy'd always known what she was.

_Feelin' fuckin' real here._ The bright pain. She was sure Buffy could feel it. She had to be able to. If she cared.

_It's another trick._

_B, it's not…I swear…help…._

A long pause. Eternities in it. _I can't…this isn't…._

_Can't or won't?_ Faith kicking herself that she should've known. Of course Buffy wouldn't. Not after everything. Not for her. This was what she had coming. Pain was pain was pain.

_I just can't._

Faith could feel the emptiness. The other girl who wasn't there. She felt herself drifting. Voices.

"Freezing Han wasn't part of the deal. Boba Fett wasn't part of the deal. You said none of them would be hurt!"

"I'm altering the deal, Calrissian. Pray I don't alter it any further."

* * *

Someone was shaking her. Saying her name.

"Wha—?"

"Faith, you've got to wake up. They've frozen Han in carbonite. Lando's taking us to Vader's ship. They've got a trap for Luke."

"Carbonite? Trap? Luke? Huh?" Faith blinked under the bright lights. Lando was standing off to one side with a cadre of his own guards and several stormtroopers. Leia's face, close to hers, was bruised. Her eyes were hollows. Faith remembered the screams. She hadn't been able to do anything for any of them. "They didn't even ask any questions. What did they—?" She shook her head, trying to get the words out.

Leia put a finger over her lips. "I don't know. All I know is Lando's giving us to Vader." She glared over the Faith at their host. He was watching the two of them, scowling. Leia turned back to find Faith was already pushing herself up. She could just imagine what she looked like. "Can you walk? Do you need to lean—?"

Faith shared a glance with Leia, brushing aside the hand. "You know me." The slayer looked around, ignoring the spots of pain here and there. Par for the course. There were guns pointed at them, but they weren't restrained. She could get the two of them out of this. They didn't know what she was.

The procession made its way to the hallway. It was quieter now. Faith spotted her lightsaber clipped onto Lando's belt. If she could just reach with her mind, like Luke had done with his lightsaber on Hoth. Pull it to her. It trembled a little, swaying.

But then Leia grabbed her arm, pointing. "Luke!" Faith's attention shifted to follow her finger and see Luke there. Here! "Luke, it's a trap!" The stormtroopers fired at him as he ducked behind a wall. He fired back. Several ran after him down a corridor. Chaos as the guards around her swirled into action. Faith lunged for Lando and grabbed the Jedi weapon, not with the Force, but with her good old-fashioned hand. Flicking it on, she swung around to take out the stormtrooper nearest the Princess. Cut in two. Leia was already reaching for the blaster still attached in the grip of one cauterized half. Gunfire all around them. The rest of the stormtroopers fell, and Faith looked to see Lando holding the blaster.

Of course, that didn't stop Leia from pointing hers at him.

His hands flew up into the air. "Hey, I'm trying to help!"

"Oh, now I'm supposed to trust you? After what you let them do to Han?"

Watching her, Faith could tell Leia'd seen it. Whatever had happened, Leia had been there. Faith knew the dark hurt in those eyes. She kept her own lightsaber up. A warning to those of Lando's guards who had their weapons pointed at Leia.

"I had no choice! I don't like the Empire any more than you do!"

"Which is why you were going to deliver me and Faith to them on a platter." The Princess's gun didn't waver.

"Look, even if you don't believe me that I wasn't, we have to go. There's still a chance to save Han. At the East Platform."

Leia turned to Lando's men. "Get Chewbacca and meet us there." Lando nodded and they were gone. And then she was gone, running towards Han, leaving them all to catch up.

* * *

"I can see them!" Leia called back to them, raising her blaster as she peered around the doorway, ready to rush out.

"Boba Fett!" Lando practically hissed the name. Faith glanced over to see Lando's lip curl. "Bounty hunter scum."

"Then what are we waiting for?" The slayer's eyes glinted and she ignored the pain, raising her lightsaber to block the inevitable fire that would come, rounding the corner to the platform where a ship was docked at the other end and a floating rectangle bore the impression of the man frozen within and stormtroopers covered the door as that prize was loaded by two: the bounty hunter, masked and green, and—

"Oh god. B." It came out hardly a whisper as Faith skidded to a stop in the middle of the platform, oblivious to the laser fire around her. The other slayer was there, blonde hair brilliant in the fading sunlight all around them. A wavy mass cascading down her bare back. The most of her bare, really. What clothing was there was sparse: collar, metallic breastplate hardly more than a bathing suit top, skintight brown shorts, a token of chainmail hanging the same length from hip bone to upper thigh, brown leather wrapped around her feet and up her calves. The rest of it was skin—tanned, gaunt, spider webs of dark red in places, in others scars. Faith knew what it took to make a slayer scar, touching the prominent one, thin and silvery across her stomach. "Oh fuck."

No way Buffy could have heard her, but still the Chosen One was turning, looking up to see the fight behind her until her hand flew to the collar of metal around her neck and she cried out, nearly stumbling into the doorway as the bounty hunter pushed her in.

Then it was just stormtroopers and a sealed up ship. Everything she and Leia wanted about to fly away.

Somewhere the Princess was screaming at her to get down, but Faith ran instead straight into it, seeing the thrusters light and fire, half aware of the troops she sliced through to get there. She came, teetering, to the edge, almost falling off it into nothing. But the ship was already out of reach through the clouds.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks for any reviews! They always get me thinking.

* * *

Faith stood, toes at the edge, watching the ship disappear into nothing. She had almost taken a slayer's leap off the platform after it. And then what would she have done? Grabbed the outside and held on? This wasn't a car chase. You couldn't just hang onto the bumper and claw your way to a door.

Not with that drop underneath you.

An arm circled around her waist and, for a moment—a moment!—she let herself relax into it. So this is what it feels like.

But then the reel of time was spinning again and someone was talking to her. Correction: had been talking to her.

"Faith! You could've fallen!"

It wasn't a voice she expected and, turning, she pulled away, seeing that arm shrink back, finding Willow's green eyes close to her own. Those eyes were on her and on the needle marks in her skin, not on the ship in the clouds. Willow hadn't seen the other slayer, then.

"Red? Where—?" Faith's eyes skated away, scanning the platform. All the stormtroopers were dead. She supposed they'd won.

"I saw you! Well, we all saw you, really, but it was like I was there!" Seeing Faith's furrowed brow. "On a table in a room? It looked bad." Trying not to stare at the already-fading bruises. "Yoda said it might be the future, and I was skeptical, but maybe that's how the Force works. Maybe it's like a crystal ball or Magic 8 ball. I had to find out. I had to come. I didn't want it to be right."

Faith shook her head. It still buzzing and her slayer was on alert and Buffy was flying away and it was all coming too fast. Only part of that was the fault of Willow's breakneck commentary. But before she could ask who Yoda was or why Willow was suddenly clairvoyant, Faith heard a whispered "Han" next to her.

Leia was there, eyes on the darkening clouds.

Willow followed those eyes. "He was on that ship, huh?"

And Faith knew right then what she should say to Willow. It should be something about how Buffy was on there, too, how the one that Willow was sent into this dimension to get back for the good of all mankind or whatever was on there, and how things had apparently not been so good for Buffy here, which would kick the redhead into gear on a Big Rescue Plan.

"We'll get Han back."

So sue her. It wasn't like Willow could do anything about Buffy right this moment anyway. Leia needed her words more.

"We saw him, too." Willow put a hand on Leia's arm. "And you. I guess we didn't get here fast enough. We wanted to save you all."

"Wait…_we_? Is—"

"Dawn's not here." Faith opened her mouth to say that's not who she was asking about, but Willow was already plowing ahead. "We left her there and Luke wanted to leave me, but I said—"

"Luke?" Looking around like she would find him on the platform with her. And then it hit her. "Oh shit, Luke!" And Faith turned to run. "He's in there with Vader!" Beside her, she saw Leia pulling her blaster from its holster again. "Stay with Lando. Get the Falcon ready!" For a moment she didn't think the Princess would agree. "The Empire's still here!"

Then a tight-lipped nod. "I trust you."

Faith met those shadowed eyes briefly. "I know."

And Faith was running. With a certain redhead hurrying behind her. The slayer tried to wave her off. "Help Leia!"

"I think I've done my share of slaying over the years! I can do this! We'll be a team!"

Faith had heard about the resolve face. She didn't have time for it. "This isn't slaying."

Willow didn't miss a bit. "Sure, but it's good vs. evil and I've done that, too. And it's not like Darth Vader is even of the demon variety, unless there're black plastic mask-y demons here."

Of course, she'd say that. He hadn't been in her head. There just wasn't any talking to some people. And, anyway, right now Faith needed to be running, not talking.

* * *

The corridors were quiet. Deserted. They went by at a blur. Faith hesitated at a crossroads and then darted down another corridor.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Willow struggled to keep up.

"Shh!"

Willow nearly slammed into the back of the slayer, now standing still. Faith screwed her eyes shut, trying to push aside the pain sitting just at the edge of her consciousness.

"Yoda says being a Jedi isn't about trying to force the Force." Willow leaned against the wall, blowing out a breath, watching her. "Hey…force the Force!"

Faith squinted open one eye. "What part of 'shh' didn't you get?"

"Oh. Right. Just trying to help."

But Faith didn't want to be open now, didn't want to sit back and wait for Vader to come into her head, again. She wanted to be in control. So she let her slayer listen, with all of its senses heightened, loving the fight. It gave her enough to go on.

Wrapping her fingers around her lightsaber, she ran into the darker parts of the station, feeling Willow rush after her. They skirted the edge of a room with swinging pipes still hissing steam from the cuts they'd suffered. There was cold and chemical and black and red. The crackle of fighting up ahead of them.

Faith jumped as another hallway lit up when they stepped inside. It knew she was coming. She could feel the cold ahead of her. And Luke's anger. Everyone had to know she was coming. She kept running towards them anyway because what choice did she have?

Then the hallway shot her out into wide open nothing.

A reactor core. Mine shaft. Tunnel to the center of the Earth—scratch that, planet. Faith burst into it and found herself perched on the small walkway that threaded over it. A bundle of pipes, a small tower hanging in the middle. Two figures she knew. All around them the stars of some sort of electronic activity: the lights of sensors blinking until they could not overcome the dark as it went down.

Way down.

Infernal wind.

Her hair whipped around and the metal shimmied as, behind her, Willow clamped a hand down on the railing on either side. The sound of a sucked-in a breath. Somebody must've looked down.

But the slayer wasn't here to help her. She kept moving forward. She kept her weapon up. Vader had Luke out on that tower, bruised and huddled. Faith caught sight of the dangling end of an empty sleeve as he tried to swing around for a better grip. No lightsaber. No hand.

"Shit." Under her breath, wrapping her own fingers tighter around the metal hilt, still creeping closer. Snatches floated back on the wind.

"—power of the dark side—what happened to your father—"

"—told me enough—you killed him!"

"No, _I_ am your father."

"Holy fuck!" Faith couldn't keep it to herself this time. And Vader and Luke both whirled to find her there, staring back and forth between them. "He's your—?"

Even if she could've finished it, Vader gave her no time, coming at her with that impervious mask even as she was scrambling back.

"Faith! No!"

From behind her, she heard Willow's cry and then a rolling wave of air or energy or something caught her a glancing blow and she went sliding off one side of the walkway, managing to hook one arm around a railing before she went over completely. A roar told her Vader caught the brunt of it. She heard the clatter as he grabbed at metal. But she was too busy dangling to look.

"Jesus, Red! What the hell?"

"It wasn't supposed to hit you!"

"Yeah, well, didn't anybody teach you to aim?" Faith kicked her legs back up onto the platform and felt burning in one thigh. She'd dragged her blade across it while trying to hang on. She could see the long gash open as she moved.

"Yoda said we needed to stay longer, but I thought—"

"Great. We get the Jedi dropout!"

"It wasn't my fault." Willow was yelling back now. "And like you're not the slayer dropout!"

"Yeah, I wondered when you were gonna get back to that." Faith's lip curled. "All this playin' nice—"

"Faith!" Luke's voice cut in between them. The slayer whirled to find him still straining to keep his hold, slipping.

She started for him, cursing at her own distraction. Stupid. She was a slayer. She was sure her injured leg ought to be hurting her, but she wasn't going to feel it. Move forward. Get there in time!

"No, Faith! Stop Vader!" And then he let go.

"Luke!"

The slayer screamed, leaning out over the railing. She saw him fall. But she had no time to feel it.

"Faith!"

Willow was yelling, and the slayer spun again, eyes blurry with tears, to find a red blade bearing down on her. She only just got her weapon up in time, blocking as she rolled to her right. To the wrong direction. She felt the tower at the end of the walkway with her heel. Vader was in front of her, and then, beyond him, Willow, a green lightsaber now wavering in her hands.

"What the—?"

Vader followed Faith's eyes. "A Jedi Master's weapon in the hands of a child." Vader had turned so that he could see both of them. His lightsaber poised between them. His voice calm. Faith could feel her own heart beating and could practically hear Willow's.

"I'm not a child!" The redhead's jaw clenched in spite of the tremor in her voice. She gripped the lightsaber more firmly, glancing between Faith and Vader.

That black mask watched. "Perhaps not. But there is even more you could be. With control. A powerful sorcerer." Turning with a nod to take Faith in as well. "A formidable killer."

That killer stared back at him. "That's it? That's your pitch? You think that's what we want?" She spoke for both of them.

"I tell you nothing you do not yourselves know. I've already seen the slayer in you."

Faith remembered that black reflection from earlier, when she'd seen her own pain in it. When he'd stood and watched, like she was some sort of pinned animal. Like he might know her better. To have her. A slayer prize. Like Buffy would be, if she didn't get there first. That slayer was in her, too. He'd seen that, too.

And then Faith was screaming, slashing out until blade tangled with blade, lighting up the dark abyss beneath them. The hacking blows were hers but not, since she'd put the slayer in charge and it fought battles on its own terms.

Vader met her crude blows with efficient ones of his own.

"I can feel your anger."

"Gonna make sure you feel it." She was breathing heavy, feeling the hum of familiar strain. She'd been fighting her entire life.

"Give in to it."

"Gladly." Through gritted teeth. He had killed Luke. She was going to make sure he didn't do it again. Luke wouldn't have wanted a father like this.

But with every blow she lost ground. Her heel found the edge behind her and then stumbled beyond so that she had to catch her balance on the instrument panel next to her. And even as she looked into that black face, she heard from far off Willow's cry and then saw her charge. Green blade coming in too high, leaving open all that vulnerable middle. And Faith could see what was going to happen. And the slayer had to do something, even as Vader was turning to strike. So she threw herself past Vader's waiting blade and caught Willow in an embrace that took them both right over the edge and down.

* * *

Falling takes forever. Especially when you're waiting to die at the end of it.

Faith clutched at Willow and Willow clutched at Faith as they fell, both squeezing their eyes shut until they felt themselves sucked into another opening. Then they were looking because they might not be dying. They were sliding down a gray tube. Out of control, until they clasped each other in the correct slalom form and slid easily and quickly along.

A leveling.

They were slowing. And then stopping. They began to disengage, look around.

But then the bottom dropped out beneath them and, in one smooth motion, the slayer grabbed Willow around the waist and, with the other hand, grabbed a passing array of metal, clinging onto it as if it was all that was between them and falling through the sky.

Which it was.

The slayer, so focused on survival, hardly noticed Luke a little ways over, still alive like them and slipping on his own weather vane. Hardly noticed the Falcon as it slipped underneath Luke and scooped him up. Still caught up in the moment of the fight and the flight until the Falcon was beneath them, too, and the slayer let everything just fall into the waiting arms of friends.

Some dim awareness of flight from Imperial ships. The hyperdrive that hadn't been repaired, at that Imperial behest. Designed to keep them here. The Empire and Vader always after her. The slayer was hunted. The feverish part of her staying aware as figures moved around her, scrambling to get the hyperdrive fixed on the fly, succeeding finally so that they could fly away and find some respite from all of this.

* * *

The Rebel medical frigate hung there, a dark hulk of metal, all its lights blinking into space.

In one window, Luke flexed the mechanical workings of his new hand. Flaps of created skin were pulled over metal and sown. A black glove was stretched over it all and you would never know. Leia joined him. Together, the two of them were the only living things in the room. They looked out, past the docked Falcon, to the stars.

In another window, no one was looking to the distance or space, even though Faith was facing it. Willow's back pressed into the glass. The slayer kept it there with the grind of her hips, her whole body aching with a number of hurts, eyes dark. She took her mouth down the redhead's pale throat, feeling the pulse. Her hands tried to get what they needed from everywhere at once.

"I didn't know that you—I mean, I probably should've, but my gaydar's not that good." Willow's breath came quickly, in gasps. "And maybe I should warn you it's been a long—" Biting her lip at the hands ripping her shirt open. "I mean not that I've forgotten, but, you know, I don't even know if I ever knew everything because maybe there was more I could've been doing with—" But Tara wasn't here, was she? Her hands fluttered as they reached out and found different hot skin, muscle. "And you probably have more experience anywmphf—"

The slayer covered the redhead's mouth with one hand, and with the other slid down a stomach taut with the breath being held.

"Less talking."

Growling into Willow's neck, mouth moving in to capture, biting at that lower lip, hand sliding down between waistband and skin until Willow couldn't have said anything else even if she'd wanted to.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks so much for sticking with this! Enjoy!

* * *

The slayer stood at the large window taking up one side of the room. There was a swirl of galaxy out there. She was naked from the waist up, the slim gray trousers doing nothing, really, to disguise the muscle and curve below. The shadows cast by the blinking lights outside fluttered across her back, throwing alabaster into stark relief. A bottle dangled from one hand.

There had probably been some sort of rule broken here. "Thou shalt not sleep with people you once held hostage" or "Thou shalt not sleep with the best friends of people who might (probably) hate you" or "Thou shalt not get your rocks off while somebody else is stuck being a scantily clad, yet sort-of-armored slave to a metal-headed guy named Boba." A rule for every situation she could get herself in.

The slayer really wasn't all about rules. Mostly because there were too many of them she had to break as a matter of course.

"Faith?"

The tone of it told her it might have been said before, even if she hadn't heard it. But still she waited a moment before turning. One last look at what was out there.

"Faith?" Even more of a question this time.

The slayer turned and her eyes were as dark as the space outside. Willow was still on the bed—a make-shift bed, really—a seating area with its cushions all askew. Clothing instead of bedsheets. She was holding her ripped shirt up to cover her, as if the slayer hadn't already seen all there was to see. And Willow was taking in what there was to see in front of her. The corner of Faith's mouth tipped up at that.

"The two of us? We, um—?" Willow bit at her lip.

"It's called fucking, Red."

The redhead winced slightly, but didn't want to be caught doing it. "Right. Fucking." All slow, like she was rolling a new word around on her tongue. "I just , I remember you saying you didn't need the medi-droid and—" Willow's eyes dropped to the still-healing cut showing through the long tear along Faith's thigh. They might have pulled it open again a few times in the midst of everything. "And then, just…wow. I mean, I never have with a slayer. I've just, you know, with Oz and Tara, and you have with Xander, which we're not really going to talk about, and probably other guys and girls and—" Her head shot up. "Wait, you didn't with Buffy, did you?"

Faith stopped her forward motion. "What? Fuck B? No!"

"Right, of course…she's straight." Willow blew out a breath and pushed her hair back out of her face. Faith thought about pointing out that that hadn't exactly been the problem, but the slayer was more interested in letting her eyes roam. Three years was a long time, and she wasn't even going to get into the time in prison before that. The redhead was still talking. "And this was pretty great—okay, really, really amazing!—but I don't really know what it means because I think I might technically still be with Tara." Her eyes slid downward. "Technically."

"Yeah," The slayer took a swig and made a face. "takes another universe. Want some?"

She held out the bottle and the redhead had a hard time keeping her eyes on it. They kept finding their way to the curve of breasts. The lean stomach all the way down to the band of those low-slung pants. The slayer watched herself be watched. And really, who was she kidding…she was watching Willow, too. All the fighting she'd been doing. And the tangle of skin had felt so good. That strangely gentle touch….

Willow snapped out of it first. "What's in it?" Pointing at the bottle.

Faith's mouth twitched at the expected wariness. Of course the do-gooder wouldn't want it. Faith shrugged and started to take another long draw herself. But then Willow noticed the look on Faith's face and she sat up a little taller, holding her hand out.

"I mean, yes, I'd love some."

Faith kept her eyebrow raised but walked over, flopping across the cushions as she handed it over. "Alcohol, I think." The label was foreign, like most things here.

Willow took one look at the half-naked slayer so close, and then tipped the bottle back, taking a big drink.

"Gah!" In one smooth motion she was on her feet, shaking her hands like that would get it off her tongue. "Or drain cleaner! It's gross! And it burns!"

"By the second drink, you won't notice."

"Why would I take a _second_ drink?"

"Well, there's always the naked shaking thing."

"The wha—?" Willow's eyebrows furrowed until she glanced down at the lot of her that the shirt she clutched was no longer covering. "Oh." She found the slayer leaning back on her elbows, watching. Her own eyes widened at the dilated pupils she saw there. The slayer wanted her. The redhead took a breath, brought her gaze up to meet that dark one, and then let her shirt drop.

For a heartbeat, nothing. Just Willow naked, only the barest hint of a blush across her chest. The rest all inviting cream. A different universe.

Then: "That your way of sayin' you want me to fuck you, Red?"

"Yes?" A pause. "I mean, only if you want—"

Willow blinked and somehow she was lying down again, not quite sure how the other girl had gotten up and gotten her down so quickly, but there she was and those breasts swung slightly above her and there was already a finger teasing up her inner thigh.

"I'm a slayer. What do you think I want?"

Willow gasped as teeth grazed her nipple. "Think?"

* * *

There was no morning after in space. There was no morning. There was just Faith extracting herself from the hand curving around her waist, hearing the mew of disturbed sleep as she slipped on rumpled clothes. Things to do.

Opening the door, she found Leia, ready to knock.

"Faith! I heard you wouldn't let the medi-droid—" The Princess glanced behind her to the half-covered, naked figure. "Wait…Willow?" Looking back to Faith. "I guess I don't need to be worried with you and Han, then. And I suppose you two _did_ know each other from before."

The slayer snorted at the suggestion that her history with Willow would make this more understandable. "How's Luke?"

Leia leaned against the wall next to her. The shadows under her eyes were dark. Faith wondered if she'd slept. "They've fitted him with a new hand. At least you were there. Who knows what Vader could've done to him…." Both women looked in themselves and knew the pain Vader was capable of. Leia shook her head to clear it. "I don't know how the three of you got away from him."

Faith still saw Luke falling in her mind. She hadn't saved him. She glanced back at Willow, stirring in the room behind her. "Part luck, part slayer, and part some sort of Force-fu Red's got goin' on these days." She saw Leia's eyebrow. "Don't know any more about it than you do." And then on to more difficult topics. "Any word on where they took Han?"

"Lando's heard of the bounty hunter. Apparently he hangs around with Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine, and Jabba had a bounty on Han, so, putting two and two together…."

"Everything happens on Tatooine." Faith sniffed, running her knuckle along the door's metal. "You trust him?"

"Lando?" Leia sighed. "I don't know. He betrayed us, but everything he's done since, sticking his neck out with the Empire to get us out of there…. He said when he heard that Vader was torturing us, when he walked in and saw what he was doing to you…." She turned to look more closely at the slayer. The needle marks in Faith's neck had long disappeared, as had the bruises. The Princess could only see the healing cut through the tear in the trousers from all of the previous day's fighting. "I can only imagine it would've been worse for you. They would've known they could do things that were even worse, with your strength and healing. You know, if you want to talk about it—"

Black mask. Faith's own reflection in it. That voice in her head. That voice that knew her. It was testing her. She didn't know how she'd scored.

"Gotta tell Chewie to get the Falcon ready."

Leia sighed. "But Lando's already…. Faith, he's getting ready to go. He thinks he can get inside and find a way to get Han out."

"Yeah, I trust him nowhere near as far as I can throw him. Chewie and me are doing this."

"Faith, you are not—!" The tiredness was falling from Leia's face now. She stood to block the other girl from sweeping past her. "We don't know anything about this place! And this Jabba knows Chewbacca, so it's not like he can just walk in…."

"'Less he has somebody to get him in there. He and I already played prisoner once, back when we rescued you." The slayer bristled at being kept where she was when she wanted to move, wanted to make sure she got in there first. "And I sure as hell am not sittin' here waitin' for Lando's singing telegram!"

"Then I'm going, too!" Leia's eyes were lit up now, like Faith's. The Force flared with her resolve. She was still blocking the slayer's way.

"I work better alone." A growl.

"No, you don't! You get sick in ships and you haven't the slightest idea how to get Han out of hibernation."

Faith opened her mouth to fire back when the sleepy voice came from behind her.

"I'm going, too."

Leia and Faith both glanced over their shoulders at Willow. Simultaneously: "No, you're not."

The redhead recoiled a little, her eyes asking for an answer from Faith. "But I can control the Force—"

But the slayer cut her off. "Look, I already gotta worry about one stubborn woman, I don't need the resolve face and I-got-my-Force-GED, too." Faith kept her stare meeting the Princess's eyebrow and then stalked off down the hallway to make the arrangements.

Which left Leia with Willow. "You should go with Luke to Dagobah. Pick up Dawn. We could use another Jedi, if that's what she is now. Meet us there. We'll probably have Han by then and we can all get back to the Rebellion together. Maybe we can even look for your friend on Tatooine while we're there. I know you're still looking for her."

"Right." Willow's eyes never left Faith's back.

* * *

It may have taken three years and some but Faith finally got her leather pants. They weren't cow but they fit. Nice and tight And they had that creak to them when she moved. Brown leather pants, a lighter-brown tunic on top, a utility belt with weapons, white cloth wrapped around the crown of her head and down sideways across her face, leaving only dark eyes watching. From under the cloth in back, dark waves struggled to escape.

A regular desert nomad.

"Guess I should count myself lucky I didn't get the gas mask costume."

Leia turned to look at her, breathing through the ventilator of the mask that covered her head entirely. Rolling your eyes was so much less effective when no one could see it. "Just let me do the talking, okay?" Her voice came out strange and metallic.

Chewbacca shifted from foot to foot behind them in chains. They'd left Lando in Mos Eisley, presumably to find something that Jabba wanted before presenting himself at the gangster's palace. This Jabba didn't seem to be the sort that just took walk-ins for coffee. In fact, if the enormous door they were now standing in front of and the eyeball that had popped out to investigate their knocking was any indication, he didn't let in much of anything that he didn't want to.

"You know, if this doesn't work out, there's this thing we could do with a giant wooden horse—"

Faith was pretty sure she was babbling. She thought of Willow, by now well on her way to Dagobah by now, scowl probably still firmly in place. She hadn't said anything before she'd left. And now Faith was babbling. The last thing she needed was a nervous tic. The door, mercifully, began to open.

They walked through and Faith turned to see the Tatooine sunlight disappear behind them between the legs of something large and dark that slipped into a side passageway.

"Okay, did anybody else just see that fuckin' huge spider back there?"

Chewie stared at her.

"Don't look at me like that. Nobody said anything about spiders. You said Jabba was a big slug—which doesn't sound particularly scary, by the way—not a room-sized—"

There was grunting in front of them, scuttling in the dark. A guard, green and pig-faced appeared, pawing for their weapons. They let him take the ones that were easy to find. More grunting as he tried to figure out what they wanted. Chewie growled at him and he lurched back, waddling ahead of them into the throne room.

Confident walking in. Confident like the bounty hunter she was supposed to be, Chewie's chain wrapped around one hand. Confident that this oversized overlord was not going to be a problem. They'd be have Han before Lando could even—

Off to her left, sprawled on a stone platform next to Boba Fett: Buffy.

Somewhere else, Leia was talking, negotiating. Somewhere she'd learned to talk in an alien language. There were threats. The hiss of surprise from the crowd in the room. Jabba's belly laugh. But Faith wasn't listening to any of it.

The blonde slayer lay on her side in the same clothes Faith had seen her before. Her eyes were half-closed. Breathing shallow. There was a tremble in her fingertips. A fresh cut, dirty around the edges, bisected her rib cage.

Why didn't she get up? Couldn't she feel Faith the way Faith could feel her? A pinprick of light right behind her eyes. Slayer sense or Force or whatever, Buffy was unmistakable.

"Faith?"

It was Leia hissing at her. She was supposed to be doing something. Following Leia. The deal was done.

She glanced back to Buffy, who stirred slightly. Gaunt, scarred, armored. A length of chain ran from her wrist to Boba Fett's gloved hand. Like that could keep a slayer in check. Lights flashed on the metal collar around her neck. Her long hair falling over those slight shoulders to only partially cover it. Even that. Even if it was painful, surely…. There were still muscles there, easier to see, in fact. Leaner. They moved when Buffy shifted. Her muscles moved, her scars moved with her skin. And then the starbursts of purple against that skin, some fading, some vivid. Something Faith had never seen.

"Faith!" Another hiss and the Princess was grabbing her this time, masked face pressed close.

"Staying here." And quite probably killing Boba Fett.

"You're a bounty hunter, Faith. You want your payment."

A guy with white tentacles wrapped around his neck was waiting, watching. Their whole mission could fall apart in a second. Chewie had already been taken elsewhere. It was her and Leia and a roomful of unsavory characters. And Buffy. Boba Fett was watching Faith watch Buffy, and if he said anything, anything….

But he didn't. Another implacable mask. This world was full of them.

Buffy still wasn't looking at her.

So Faith had no choice but to go, following tentacle man and Leia down into the labyrinths of Jabba's palace.

* * *

By the time they got to the throne room again, it was under cover of darkness. The party had died out, leaving only the snoring or the comatose propped up against walls. Leia made for Han, on display on a far wall. The slayer threaded her way through sleeping limbs behind her.

Buffy wasn't among them. It was the first thing she'd checked.

Han's carbonite casing thudded to the floor and Faith jumped back to the task at hand. That had been too loud. Both of them scanned the dark room around them, easing Han's frozen form back against the wall. Nothing stirred.

The slayer kept her eyes on the dark anyway, hearing Leia behind her: the sound of buttons being pushed, the hum of something happening. Thawing, she hoped. The slayer's fingers made themselves into fists, stretched, and did it again. She reached out with her senses. They had been too loud. This was taking too long. She could feel the Force in the living things around her. The nervous energy from Leia behind her. The brilliance of Buffy, somewhere.

It did not tell her what was listening.

Voices, and she whirled to find Leia holding Han, shivering, half-curled.

"I can't see!"

Faith clamped a hand over Han's mouth before he got all of them killed. Leia soothed.

"It's hibernation sickness. It will pass." It sounded less soothing through the mask's ventilator.

"Who—?"

"Someone who loves you." Leia peeled off the mask, bringing Han's hand to her very human face.

The slayer eyed the dark, keeping her whisper low. "Any way we could save this saccharine stuff for some other time?"

And then all three of them heard the laugh behind them.

"Nevermind." The slayer whirled as a curtain slid back. Jabba was laughing. Guns were pointed at them. Buffy was there, standing next to the bounty hunter, tense, watching. Watching Faith—or rather watching the dark eyes she could see—head cocked just slightly to one side.

"Wait, I know that laugh…." Han struggled to stand, reaching his hands out to hold on to Leia. "Jabba!" The charm slid into place. "Jabba, I was just on my way to see you. I have your money."

The gangster just laughed. A burble of another language. Faith had the impression it wasn't an apology for the great big misunderstanding. The guards were beginning to separate them. Buffy was still standing there, at the length of her chain.

"His excellence reminds you that resistance will do you no good and that you had your chance to settle your debts. Now you must pay him with your life. Except the girl."

It was Leia the guards pushed forward, her hair long and flowing free now that her mask had been tossed aside. Other guards were already pulling Han away. They were putting their paws on the slayer and starting to pull her away.

"Jabba, you're making a big mistake here!"

"We have powerful friends!"

"I could pay you triple!"

The guards dragging Leia closer as she leaned back further. Han stumbling, unable to see, shouting in every direction. The sharp bark of laughter and scuffling feet and not going according to plan and the slayer tensing as more hands tried to get her to move one way or the other.

She saw Boba take a needle out of a compartment on his wrist guard. Jam it into Buffy's neck.

And then she lost it, whipping the lightsaber out of her boot, flicking it on and in one slice taking out an arm. There were screams, guns firing, yelling. A shot hit her hand and she dropped the weapon, crying out. Jabba slammed his fist down on the console next to him, and then the ground below the slayer's feet was dropping away and she was pushing Leia forward enough to be on solid ground and Han behind her had been jerked back far enough so that it was just her falling.

Just her and Buffy, eyes now purple and bright, tumbling as Boba Fett shoved her forward and let the chain go to rattle after.

Then it was both of them falling.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Ever grateful for your thoughts!

* * *

People who have trap doors in their floors aren't, as a rule, trying to facilitate access to their comfy guest bedrooms. Faith was falling and then she was hitting a very unforgiving rock wall, bouncing off of it, hearing her lightsaber bounce off and away, feeling herself tumbling and finally landing face-down in the dirt at the bottom. Only the cloth still wrapped over most of her face kept that dirt out of her mouth.

A thud next to her signaled that Buffy had taken the hard way down, too.

Faith turned to look, unable yet to speak, what with the air all forced out of her lungs by the impact.

But the Chosen One was moving faster, already up, seeming to have all her breath still in her chest even though the cut on her ribs had opened again. More dirt had ground into it. There was some blood there and in a trickle from where Boba Fett had jammed the needle into her neck, but she didn't seem to notice. Her hands weren't shaking anymore. One was swinging the chain still fastened to her wrist because it was the only weapon she had. What clothes she was wearing couldn't have concealed any others.

Now was not the time to be thinking about clothing.

Those eyes were still unfamiliar, violet in the dark. And they weren't on Faith. Faith's slayer hummed at that, recognizing that she had been labeled less dangerous, for the moment, than something else. She scurried up out of the dirt.

Above them, she saw currency changing hands as the various alien scum huddled in. She saw Leia's wide eyes, ignoring the guard's hand around the back of her neck. There was an inordinant amount of cheering. Which was probably not a good sign.

Neither was the creaking of a rusted gate in the dark.

Or Buffy's hissed "Rancor!"

The slayers could see the teeth first, fringing the wide mouth that ducked low to get in under the gate as it rose. And in a blur, Buffy was over to and on top of that head before it had even made it through, trying to strangle, but the chain wasn't long enough, so she whipped it down into the rancor's eyes instead. It roared and jerked up, throwing the blonde back into the still-rising gate and then turning to see where the irritant had gone. Buffy dangled on one rung.

"Hey, ugly!"

Faith let loose with a rock and hit one great clawed hand. The beast whirled back around and, with an arm longer than she expected, swept across and grabbed her right around the middle, hoisting her up in the air towards its mouth.

Suffocating grip. Pretty sure a rib might've snapped. A glance found Buffy staying where she was, watching from her perch on the gate's rung, eerie gaze fixed on the thing she wanted to kill.

So Faith grabbed two fingers and pulled them in opposite directions, ripping the webbing a little in between. Another roar and she was flung against the rock wall again. Sliding down to the floor, coughing.

Shake it off.

Buffy was already launching another attack while Faith was just trying to drag herself across the dirt to the lightsaber she'd spotted. Lunging over to grab it as a foot came down where she'd been. Flicking it on and then whirling around. Her slayer senses screamed. Her whole body hummed with instinct and the pull of the Force—primitive around the beast, flaring around Buffy.

The rancor had the Chosen One, claws wrapped around as Buffy held a boulder in her hands, blood sliding down one side from the gash on her ribs. She didn't seem to notice.

Talking instead to Jabba and the cheering hordes above. "Is this what you want, slug boy? You want me to kill your pet?"

Laughter filtered down at the thought she could do such a thing.

Faith knew Buffy, knew she was better in every way, and it was still hard for her to see it, what with the blood, the blonde so small and the rancor so big, the claws gripping so that even Faith could see Buffy wince at their hold, her eyes so bright and fixed it was like she didn't even care about death, like she'd seen it reflected back to her a hundred times, like it was the clearest thing in the world in front of her. Kill or be killed. Closer now to that gaping mouth.

Faith cried out, charging across the cavern with her blue blade in front of her, going to, in one swift stroke, cut one leg out from under the beast. She swung, screaming at the thing that was holding Buffy.

But it didn't go as planned.

The blade went deep to the bone but wouldn't cut through and then she was stumbling off to one side in between those legs, her momentum all off and her weapon falling out of her hands as the rancor roared at the cut, tossing Buffy away into the wall and stepping around to find the source of its pain, which was Faith, rolling on the ground between those clawed feet and scrambling to get clear.

"It won't work! The bones are too hard! You've got to get to a vulnerable part, which, if you hadn't interrupted, I was about to—"

Faith made it to the wall, flattening herself into a crack in it. "Yeah, well, thanks for sharin' that tidbit _before_ I tried to save your ass!"

"They didn't drop me in here to share." Buffy nimbly dodged the swipe of one of those long arms. That natural grace. It wasn't hard to remember, even with all the time that had passed since Faith'd last seen it. "And I don't need saving."

Bets were still exchanging hands above. The rancor was circling, but Faith couldn't keep her eyes off the blonde who wasn't even looking at her. That same Buffy that didn't need her help.

"Right. That sure looked like one fuckin' fantastic plan over—hey!"

The rancor wasn't waiting.

A claw peeled her out of her hiding place and she lunged again between its legs and over onto the other side, waiting for it to turn after her. But Buffy was yelling and waving her arms and so it went for her instead, that vise grip coming down around that slim waist again, raising her to those waiting teeth again. And Faith didn't have a weapon so she was going to have to take it on with her bare hands, but she would do it, because Buffy was getting closer to that mouth and this time Faith was going to do something to stop it.

But then Buffy was inside of it.

Teeth closed around.

A chorus of cheers from above.

And Faith was screaming, ramming her whole body into one of those solid legs, willing her slayer or the Force or whatever to bend it to her and make it budge because that's what those powers were good for, wasn't it? What good were they if they couldn't do this when you needed them most? And she strained enough that she thought she could lift one foot off the ground, that foot the size of her, to say nothing of the rest of the beast above it. The beast that was starting to move its mouth to swallow Buffy until its eyes bulged open and it opened its mouth again to roar out, this time in pain. Buffy was in there with Faith's lightsaber, that blue blade piercing up through the top of the mouth into the rancor's brain. She pulled it out and jumped clear. And then the rancor, all claws and hide and teeth, teetered and fell, right in front of Faith.

All she could do was stare.

Until she heard the hum of the lightsaber and looked down to find her own blade at her throat.

The voice from behind her. "Alright, Lawrence of Arabia, now it's just you and—"

"Faith!" Leia's yell filtered down from above.

Faith's elbow jabbed back instinctively, catching the Chosen One in her wounded side, whirling to take her neck out of the lightsaber's press.

"Faith?" The blade was still up. Those tinted eyes struggled to understand. There was something they knew they should be understanding.

Faith ripped the scarf from her head and let her dark locks tumble free. "In the flesh."

"I _knew_ this was hell!"

Faith kept her face flat, like she'd seen this all before. "Sorry to disappoint, but I went through that one already, B. It ain't hell."

"But you're here fighting me and—" Her grip on the lightsaber didn't waver.

"Correction, you're fighting_ me_." From above them, the crowd was getting impatient with the lack of said fighting. Faith knew she should be saying something about Dawn. About Willow. About how they wouldn't be here if this was hell. "I'm the one tryin' to do some savin'."

"Oh, of course. I'm not sure how in the world I could've gotten those two mixed up with you." The slayer practically trembled to be in battle again. Her muscles wanted her to move. The blood coursing through her wanted her to lash out. "Wait, so that means it actually was you when—?"

"When we were dreamin'? Yeah, but don't ask me why we were naked because I woulda thought that wouldn't be your—"

Buffy went on as if she hadn't heard. "That was you in the sand?" Her lip curled. "Fat lot of saving you were doing then. You let them take me!"

"But I didn't _let_—!"

"You let them take me and they nearly killed me before they figured out how to control me!"

Faith could feel it in her gut. That tremble in their connection so long ago, when she'd been on her way off Tatooine. Her breath was suddenly hard to get and she didn't know if it was the cracked rib. The indentation in the sand. Buffy had been there. If she'd just….

But then she saw the blonde stumble in front of her, hand flying up to the collar wrapping around her neck as a cry escaped her lips. Somebody was getting impatient. This was not the show they were paying for. Buffy's eyes fluttered back open, still unnatural, but unfocused. Faith could see the tremor running through the muscles in Buffy's arms, where she was trying to hold the lightsaber still.

"B?" Faith started for her, hands out, only to take a kick to her chest that sent her staggering back. "Hey! I'm on your side!"

"Don't you get it, Faith? Nobody's on anybody's side here! There's just fighting and killing…that's what they want to see! I take a flying leap in Sunnydale and I still end up a slayer for the rest of my life!" She was lunging out at Faith now, the chain still dangling from her wrist clanking with every swing.

Faith danced out of the way and the crowd was in it again, shouts of "kill her!" and "kill her!" drifting down, and here was Buffy in front of her, with those unreadable eyes. Faith could feel her slayer rising to the bait. It bristled at the attack even as it appreciated an elegant foe. Blood and dirt and all, those muscles still moved smoothly under Buffy's skin. Every parry beautiful and deadly.

Buffy swung again and Faith grabbed her hand as it came near, twisting until the lightsaber dropped from Buffy's fingers. It fell, but Faith found herself spun around and wrapped up from behind, body pressing into her back, arm across her throat, starting to press tighter.

"Kill her!" from above. Cheering.

"They gonna let more than one of us outta this room, B?" It came out hoarse. The arm around her throat stayed where it was. Her vision narrowed to the pinpoint of her situation here in the dark: she should be fighting back. If it was kill or be killed, she should be the one killing. Things were getting confusing. Far away. Not enough time and air to think the things she should be thinking. Instead, there were just the little things: the arm wrapped around her throat, the other hand peeling her grasping fingers back, the body flush against her, behind her.

"The trick is to make the show less interesting."

Buffy's voice so far away. And then darkness and nothing as Faith slumped back into the other girl's arms.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Sorry this one took a tad longer than I thought! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"I felt that, you know."

"I didn't touch anything!" Faith whipped her hands up in the air and felt, as she did, the slide of cotton against skin.

Wait…cotton?

Around her, Buffy's bedroom was bathed in moonlight. There were pictures and trophies and makeup and jewelry. Relics of a different time and place.

Like Buffy. Except she was right there in the bed next to Faith, raising an eyebrow. "I meant I felt the whole lack of oxygen thing. Near death? The slayer connection? Ringing any bells?"

Faith didn't know what to do with her hands now that they were out from under the covers, so she interlaced her fingers and brought them behind her head like that's what she'd been intending to do all along. Trying to look casual. "Oh. Guess that's good. Good to know you'd feel it if you killed me."

"I would."

Faith had to glance over at that one. The blonde was on her stomach, her cheek resting on folded arms, looking right back at her with those familiar green eyes.

"Yeah, well, I felt that with you, too. Not that I tried to kill you. But when you, you know, ended up on sand planet with me and after those alien guys got you and took you away and did whatever." Faith pulled her eyes away from those green ones—and from the smooth skin of that shoulder—to look out the window so that maybe she could get a thought out without stuttering through it. "I felt that. And you." Sometimes it was better to keep it simple.

"It's good to see Willow's babbling tradition is being carried on even in bizarro world."

Now Faith definitely wasn't looking at Buffy. "Pretty sure Red wouldn't like the comparison." There was a complication she hadn't even thought of. It'd made sense not to say anything to Willow before she left, hadn't it? She'd been busy getting ready and there were the disguises to put together. But she'd probably—who was she kidding, certainly—made the redhead mad. Which meant that Buffy would be mad because the two of them stuck together—

"Well, I'm glad you came, anyway."

Buffy's admission startled Faith from her thoughts. "Which is sorta different from the impression I'd gotten." Faith had to look back at those eyes, to see how serious they were. "We kinda have a hard time sayin' this shit, don't we?"

"I'm gonna go with emotionally crippled." The older slayer lifted up to rest on her elbows and Faith's eyes zipped right back for the ceiling.

"So it takes a dreamy trip back to dear old Sunnydale and your bedroom to bring out the less complicated? And I'm not sure I need to point out the nakedness here."

"I never would've thought you'd be so modest."

"This is your bedroom, so that means it's your dream. I'm not the one makin' us naked. Just so we have the record straight."

"I never would've thought that either."

Faith's eyes snapped back down to Buffy and caught, inadvertently, just the top of the swell of Buffy's breasts, then up to the smile tipping up one corner of the blonde's mouth. Faith's own mouth went dry. She coughed and flipped over onto her stomach, matching the other girl's pose. "Except you're all cryptic and…." She almost said _and you haven't stuck a knife in me yet_, but stopped herself. "…which probably means I'm the one dreamin' here." Pause. "Which means I'm probably supposed to be takin' some big message from this. Shit. I knew I shoulda been payin' better attention."

"Maybe we're both dreaming. We're both here, anyway. And I'm not sure how _you_ would know about the little tear Mr. Gordo has along his belly." She ran a finger across that blemish at the seam, then turned the pig so it was looking first at her, then over at Faith. "Did you know about Mr. Gordo? Did I share him with you?"

"Not remembering that." Faith stared back at the animal's little black eyes.

Buffy turned those eyes back on herself. "I should have."

"Eh." A shrug. "Probably not. Had a nasty habit of killin' things."

"Faith, you couldn't kill him. He's not alive." Buffy made the pig nod at Faith.

"C'mon, slayer." Faith knocked her shoulder against the other girl's. The bed rocked slightly under them. "Killed plenty of things that weren't alive."

"Good point." Now Mr. Gordo was nodding at Buffy. "Still, I think I'm going to have to take responsibility for the tear."

"Sometimes these things just happen."

This time it was Buffy who nudged her shoulder. "Ooh, look at you, all philosophical."

"Must be rubbin' off on me."

"Like your less-is-more approach to sleeping attire is rubbing off on me?"

And then Faith had to grab the pig out of the older girl's hands in order to keep her own occupied and her eyes occupied, turning over onto her back and tossing the pig up in the air and catching it. "Guess everybody's got something to give."

"And now you're here, so maybe you can help me patch him up?" Buffy caught the animal just above Faith's hands and turned him over between them.

"If this is gonna involve sewing…."

"Nope. You just need to hold your finger…there." Faith looked down and Buffy had her finger in her hand and was pressing it over that tear. She could feel the plush, the cottony filling, the stiffer seam, the other girl's cool skin against her own. Somewhere in there, the sheet had slipped further down Buffy's back.

"Not sure how this fixes anything." Faith kept her finger where it was. Buffy kept her hand where it was. They both looked at Mr. Gordo between them.

"Well, but look, you can't see where it's torn now, can you? That's something, isn't it?"

* * *

"You sure know how to make friends."

"Wha—?" Faith started, hearing the clink of chains around her. She was slumped against a wall, held up by her wrists in those chains, in the same place Han had been before they got him down and unfrozen. Everything hurt. By which she supposed she was alive. "I don't think B's exactly lookin' to renew—"

But Han plowed on, not noticing her confusion. "Jabba's still mad about the rancor. Took some talking for him not to kill you outright. There was some suggestion you might be a more attractive trophy alive. "

Faith shook her head to clear it. Of course. Not everyone was talking about Buffy all the time. "Attractive to him? Okay, that's fuckin' gross." She turned, wincing at the stiffness in her neck and ribs, and found Han chained next to her. He still looked bleary-eyed and half-blind from the hibernation.

"He _is_ a giant slug."

"Yeah, well, my kingdom for some salt. Please tell me he's not the reason I'm stripped down practically to a bra over here." Faith scanned the room, trying to be ginger with her cracked rib but unable to help the coughing fit when she saw Leia. "Holy shit." The Princess was wearing a whole lot less than she had been before. Faith's eyebrows climbed up her forehead. "I think I mighta gotten off on the good side. Have you seen the get-up they've got Leia in?" She was half muttering this to Han while simultaneously trying to convey to Leia across the crowded room, each of them chained at a different end of it, that she was okay and was Leia okay and how the hell had all this gone so wrong?

"What's Jabba done to her?" Han's righteous indignation pulled Faith from her thoughts.

"Well, aside from havin' her chained to his spare tire, let's just say she's beating the heat better than most."

He could hear the slight smile in her voice. "I'm missing something good, aren't I?"

Faith had to admit Han was a lucky man. "Gonna go with a yeah on that." She paused. "Except the chained-to-Jabba thing. And the whole escape-with-you-plan-not-really-working-out thing. So, really, sorta less good and more fucked, but—" She squinted through the smoky dark. "Hey…is that Lando?"

"Speaking of less good." Han strained to see, but his eyesight still wasn't good enough. "I swear I'm gonna kill that—"

"Yeah, I don't trust him either, but he did get us outta Cloud City and he came with us here. Guess he figured out some way to smooth-talk himself in here to see what was going on. Musta found something Jabba would be interested in buyin'."

"Oh, he's a smooth-talker all right." Pause. "Wait…he isn't near Leia, is he?"

"Well, he's kinda talkin' to Jabba, and Leia's near Jabba, so…. Oh, I see your point, seein' as how she's kinda as close to naked as you can get." Turning to Han. "Which is sorta strange 'cause it's not like Jabba could…you know. And if he's such a big lech, I don't get why I got to keep the leather pants when—"

But she didn't get to finish.

"Well, for starters, you took the head off a guard with your bare hands when they tried to take them away."

At Buffy's voice, Faith's eyes flicked from Han to find the blonde slayer right in front of her. The shadows around those eyes were even deeper, even as the purple had faded a little from the irises. The blood was still crusted down her wounded side. There was a new spiderweb of dark purple against her neck where that needle had gone in. Her whole body practically quivered. From a little ways behind her, Boba Fett was watching.

Buffy watched Faith take her in. "In the end, I think the guards just did a little cost-benefit analysis. It was easier to let you keep your precious leather pants." Glancing down at that familiar attire. "Some things never change."

Faith was suddenly aware of the leather tight against her thighs. And aware of the rest of her, of the hot air against her bare skin, and the metal and leather covering her breasts, and the silvery scar now apparent on her stomach. She leaned back against the wall, chains jangling, trying to place this wild-eyed Buffy, intentions unknown, side by side with the Buffy she'd just talked to in her dream. She missed cigarettes. "Yeah, you know me and leather. Took me long enough to find 'em."

"Faith, who—?"

"Sorry. Suck at intros. Han, this is B, aka the Chosen One and Only." She saw the other girl's wince. "She's the non-leather-wearin' slayer."

"Wait, the gladiator? The one who tried to kill you?" He squinted as though that would help him see through the dark blur of the room. "I didn't think she was even still alive after all that screaming."

Faith's gaze snapped to Buffy. There had been screaming? She had missed screaming? How long had she been out? Buffy's fingers twitched like they wanted a stake. Boba Fett was still watching, silent. Buffy found Faith's raised eyebrow. "Some people weren't too happy that I didn't kill you. There were bets." By way of explanation. And she couldn't resist adding: "Five to one I would win."

Faith snorted. "Appreciatin' your restraint, B, but you know I was just goin' easy on you, seein' as how you're sorta lacking in the armor department." Faith let her eyes roam down that lean body, the metal top so like her own and leaving so little to the imagination, that token of chain mail hanging at her hips. "Guess we know what they were tryin' to protect."

"Worked to distract you."

Faith remembered that arm around her neck from behind, squeezing. The body pressed against her. She still couldn't read those unnatural eyes that seemed in one light green and in another still tinged with something else. "Ain't like I never seen tits, B." She was _not_ going to think of Buffy's breasts, not going to think of that thin sheet in the dream. "More like I was just tryin' to avoid another knife to the gut." Now there was a familiar place for the two of them to go back to. She knew Buffy would flinch, and she did, like an animal startled. "Or maybe you're gonna strangle me again. Good to see you've spiced up the M.O."

Han's voice broke in between them. "I don't suppose it would be possible, Faith, before you make the nice girl go away, that you could convince her to break us out of here?"

Buffy gave a sharp bark of a laugh, turning to look at him and then the room behind them. "Break you out? Even if I did, where would you go? You'd be dead before you got to the doorway and your friend would be stuck as Jabba's dancing girl until he got tired of her." She waved her hand in Leia's direction and Faith could see the Princess back there, standing at the edge of her chain, watching Faith and Han and Buffy, clearly wanting to know what was going on.

"You really think, B, that you and me couldn't tear this place up? You really gonna leave us here in these chains?"

"What, let you go so you could stab me in the back?"

"This from the girl with freaky-ass eyes that just tried to choke the life outta—"

Those same eyes flared. "You're the one that left me to this! Like you always left me to deal with everything! And you've just been flitting around like some sort of intergalactic playgirl—"

Han tried to cut in again. "Strictly speaking, it wasn't really like—"

But the two slayers were too busy bristling against each other to notice. Faith could feel the other girl's anger radiating through the Force. Faith knew she should probably be focusing on that Force, calming herself. Probably should be. "I came here for Han after _you_ and _your_ boss took him from Cloud City. At least I'm trying to help my friends!"

Their voices were beginning to attract notice.

"Wow…friends? This is a new leaf for you, Faith! Did you make friends with lots of the girls in prison, too, because I hear they can be _really_ nice."

"Fuck you! So I'm not Miss Popular…look where it got you! Were you thinkin' about the Scoobs when you took that flyin' leap into that big ole portal o' oblivion back in Sunny—"

And then the punch cracked into her jaw. "How the _hell_ do you know about that? You have no idea what it was like! My mother _died_ and Dawn was—"

But Buffy never got to finish it, her anger tapering off into a scream as Faith smelled the burn of electricity. And the blonde slayer was sinking to her knees and Jabba was roaring and Lando was jumping up, going for his gun before another was pointed at him, and Boba Fett was moving in, pressing a button on the control in his hand.

In a blur, Faith had ripped the chains straight out of the wall and lunged at the bounty hunter. And, in as short a time, a gun pressed her chin up and stopped her in her tracks. Across the room, Leia had been dragged close to Jabba, her chain wrapped tight around her neck.

Nobody moved. There was just the sound of Buffy's shallow breathing, rasping attempts to get air in the aftermath of the shock. Then the soft word that, at first, it took Faith's slayer hearing to even pick out.

"Please."

One word and Faith was trying to figure out which way to jump.

But it wasn't directed at her.

"_Please_." It came out hoarse, but louder.

Faith looked up and around and saw Boba Fett look to Jabba, with that unreadable metal face that Faith just wanted to bash in. Jabba lifted a fat hand, burbling in a language that meant nothing to her. Boba Fett took a small vial from his belt.

"What the fuck are you doin' to her?" Looking around from staring face to face, to Leia and Lando's wide eyes. The gun stayed pressed into her skin. "Can somebody translate here? I don't speak Lard Ass and if somebody doesn't tell me what's goin' on, I'm gonna…."

Jabba was laughing at her, eyes widening a little, and inadvertently pulling Leia even closer to his heaving body as he burbled on. Next to him, a droid stepped forward.

"His Excellency is curious as to what you will do. He finds it most inconvenient that you've torn the chains from his wall when you made such a picturesque display there."

"Yeah, well, tell him I'm gonna _inconveniently_ use that chain in his hand to rip him a new one if he doesn't let Leia loose and back the fuck away from B."

Jabba laughed again, but it was Buffy, still crumpled on the floor, shaking and hugging her arms around her middle, that spoke, this time to her.

"Please, Faith. It makes it better."

Faith opened her mouth, but nothing really came out. The blonde looked so small down there and the gun was still jammed up under her chin and what could she say?

"It appears to His Excellency that you are trying to protect someone who does not desire your help, particularly after he has been so generous as to allow her to go on living despite her recent poor manners." A wave of that meaty arm and Boba Fett handed that vial to Buffy's outstretched hand. She tore the cap off with her teeth and drank the teaspoon's-worth down, letting out a ragged, held breath as she curled herself on the floor, blinking as the purple drained from her eyes.

Faith could only stare. The droid was still talking.

"Of course, His Excellency can understand that you wish to preserve the slave for your own vengeance now that she has bested you twice. It is fortunate, then—"

"Wait…my own what?" Faith's brain felt like it was stuck in mud, eyes pulled away from Buffy, who still wasn't getting up, wasn't helping. But the droid went on as if it hadn't been interrupted.

"—It is fortunate, then, that His Excellency, in his beneficence, will permit you that satisfaction. With the assistance of the goods procured by Mr. Calrissian here, His Excellency is sure it will be an exciting match." Faith saw Lando's head jerk back around to look at Jabba, then at Faith again, mouth open, head shaking. "Preparations will be made."

Payment was shoved in Lando's hand and a guard escorted him to the door even as he tried to look back over his shoulder. An excited hum made its way through the room's inhabitants. A metal collar matching Buffy's was snapped around her neck.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Han shifted, still in his chains behind her. "Because you were paying attention."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Credit due here to Wookiepedia for some of the details here (and belated credit to the same for the detail about the rancor bone's ability to withstand a lightsaber two chapters back). Oh, and fair warning that I've been listening somewhat obsessively to Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" and, in what may amount to inadvertent method writing, it might have made me somewhat crazy.

* * *

"Okay, I think there's been some sorta mix-up here. I asked for a cell_ without_ alien piss in the corner."

Faith grabbed onto the bars in the door's small window, hauling herself up off the ground so that she could look out. The guard knocked his club into her knuckles, giving something approximating a grin as she fell back, sucking on her bloodied joints. A momentary jolt ran through her and she almost bit down on her own skin.

"Hey! Jabba said it was a precaution, not a joy buzzer!" The guard waddled off down the hallway, waving a small control over his head. Faith rubbed the place where her skin touched the metal collar. "Fuckin' sadist."

"Could be worse."

"How?" Strategy was turning out not to be her strong point.

"There's something rotting in here with me and Chewie." Han's voice came across the hallway, with the Wookie's warbling bark in the background. "And Jabba wouldn't let a guard make you damaged goods."

"Yeah, well, his trophy's gonna bite him in his ass. Wherever it is." She kicked at the door. It didn't move. "Good to see ya, Chewie. Thought I'd see you more in a breaking-you-out capacity, but there were issues."

A long growl.

"Chewie says there often are."

"Yeah, but if I could just talk to B. If Jabba's gonna make us fight, there have to be weapons, right? Which would mean armed slayers and with the two of us together—" Her words were racing ahead of her. She could practically see herself fighting back to back with the blonde.

"It's not going to work."

"What do you mean, _not going to work_? You've never seen me and B fight." Faith paced back and forth in the dark. "Well, okay…you might've _heard_ it recently, but I think you're missin' the part where the two of us used to kick demon ass on a regular—"

"Faith, I saw you pull those chains right out of the wall—it's not your strength I'm doubting. It's this 'B' person I don't trust."

"B? You can't _not_ trust _her_. She's _B_. She's inherently trustable. She's like Trust and Truth and Good with a big shining sword."

"Which she seemed like she wanted to use to cut your head off."

Faith fingered the split lip and bruised jaw she'd been dealt earlier. Not like she hadn't deserved that. "Probably, yeah, but that's about me so it doesn't necessarily—"

"And she's an addict."

That stopped Faith's pacing. "No she's not." This was not the way things were supposed to be.

"Tempest, if I had to guess from your description. Purple eyes, the dark splotches under her skin, right? It's a spice. Tempest. The Huts deal in it."

"Well, look, if she's pumping oregano into her veins or whatever it's probably because she's been in this shithole for the last three years and if it makes it easier for her to sleep—"

"Sleep? No. that's something else—probably eldratz, although I'd heard Jabba wasn't dealing in that anymore because of the whole 'living death' problem." He sighed. "She's a slayer like you, right, Faith?"

"The original. And what 'living death' problem?" Faith's hands were wrapped around those bars again. She hoisted herself up to try to see something—anything—in the dank dark.

Han ignored her question. "Would you sit around chained to Boba Fett or Jabba or whoever for three years?"

"No, but there's this big metal choker thing like they've got me wearing now and, you didn't see it, but when the electricity goes, it's like you can see her bones glowing inside." She blew out a breath. "Long story short, I could see how it'd be sorta persuasive. I think they almost killed her with it in the beginning." And how many times had it happened since? When Faith was somewhere else? The slayer ground her knuckles, blood and all, into the cell's stone walls.

"Faith, they almost killed her because even when they shocked her it wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough for you. You'd just wait until the guy with the control wasn't paying attention and then you'd take his head off. So you want to keep her as a gladiator—because the girl's gonna make you money—"

Faith couldn't help but interrupt here. "That's not B. She's not the mercenary type." She knew in an instant that it should have been her in here. There'd been a galaxy-sized mix-up and, when Faith got dragged along the dimension-hopping adventure, that'd messed everything up. This wasn't the way it was meant to be, that's what the Powers had said to Willow and Dawn.

"She's making the money for them, Faith, not her." Han was still talking. "So they give her Tempest when they need her to fight. And then she gets the feeling of invulnerability and strength. She handles the rage better than most—"

"Slayers got some practice dealin' with that killing urge."

"—but who knows how long she's been on it. Most people aren't for very long. They're addicted from the beginning and the more you use it, the more you lose self-control and sanity. And the more you need more of it. So they've got that over her, too."

"Wait, so they give a slayer a drug that makes her stronger and want to kill even more? How does that make sense, from a bad-guy standpoint?"

She could practically hear Han's shrug. She _was_ talking to a smuggler here. "There's money in risk. That, and they know that, between the addiction, the slave collar, and the eldratz, they can toggle her up and down as they please. Until she just gives out or dies in battle. Of course, like you, she's got a better chance of lasting longer. Which makes the risk even more worth it."

Of course she'd be worth the risk. Buffy was better at everything, even killing. She couldn't help it, even when it'd be better if she was worse. "So this eldratz is what she's on now up there?" Faith could still see the other slayer on the floor in front of her.

"That's my guess." Pause. "Probably easier for everyone. I've heard of bosses using it to keep their slaves cooperative. Things don't seem to matter as much. You want to sleep."

"Living death." Faith's mouth dried up as she said it.

"Eventually."

Three years towards that already.

* * *

They were left alone down there for days. No one came except the guards with food. Sometimes. They obviously didn't have any sort of appreciation for how much a slayer could eat. Chewie's stomach had been growling from the very beginning. Now the two of theirs were rising into a crescendo of hunger.

Then more guards came. Smarter ones. They took Han and Chewie out of their cell first and pointed guns at them before going in en masse for Faith. A few gratuitous jolts later and she was bound and led, gasping, under gun, away through a warren of dank passages, then more populous ones buzzing with activity where she caught a glimpse of something familiar.

R2-D2?

Hadn't he been with Luke? Another glance but the droid was already lost in the crowd. There had to be hundreds of that model, didn't there? The blaster jammed into her back wasn't in the mood to let her stop and find out.

More people. Her senses crowded with sounds, the buzz from all that was alien around her, the tingle of Buffy somewhere in it, the Force like a web. Ushered onto the platform of a small, open-topped ship. And then they took her out into the sun.

* * *

"Suns" would be more accurate. Back to the Tatooine suns where she started. Faith could feel both of them bearing down on her. The whole world shimmered. On the sand to one side: tents, pavilions, rows of seats. Jabba had arranged for an audience.

The gangster's sail barge floated on her other side. Assorted boats like hers buzzed around it, all bristling with armed aliens all watching her—turbaned, robed figures it was hard to make out. Faith's boat stayed where it stopped, right over a pit with waving tentacles and some sort of pinkish mouth. With teeth.

Now, see, this was the sort of bad feeling she'd been talking about.

She felt a bead of sweat trickle down in between her shoulder blades. Metal and leather bikini tops? Not the most comfortable thing to wear in the hot sun. But, then again, they probably didn't have her comfort in mind.

Through the opened panels on the side of the sail barge, she could make out Leia, still chained, next to Jabba. Another ship pulled near and Han and Chewie were on it, also bound. Boba Fett was there. Faith could see bets being made and money changing hands in the pavilions below.

"His Excellency would like to welcome all to this afternoon's event."

She knew that voice.

"While you are all aware of the exploits of your gladiator, His Excellency will take the opportunity to introduce the challenger: one Faith Summers—"

Threepio. Faith could see the golden droid standing on the other side of Jabba. She wondered whether the last name had been dragged out of him or Leia. And if Threepio was here and R-2 was here, then….

"—who survived in a battle with the rancor and who carries the weapon of a Jedi—"

Another flurry of bets below.

"What's the matter, Jabba? Too scared to let me have that weapon now? Afraid your little warrior might lose?"

Another hum from the crowd. They were fans of taunting.

"His Excellency knows that the strengths of a Jedi are not bound up in that weapon—"

Faith had the fleeting thought that going to Dagobah for training might have been a better idea. Except for the fact that she knew her opponent well. And knew that more training in the Force was not what she needed to deal with her.

That, and they wouldn't be fighting anyway, because Faith wasn't going to. She held that trick in her pocket, wishing she could find Buffy in the throng. Make some sort of eye contact. They had to be on the same page. There were a lot of people to get free. Everything was happening too quickly. Those damn boats kept buzzing around. Her senses were sharpened by hunger. It was too hot.

"—and He is generous enough to provide you with another means by which to make the fight more interesting."

As if there weren't enough of those already. Faith could make out the guards on the other ship pushing Han and Chewie close to the edge. Han couldn't even really see yet. She felt the leather ties cutting into her wrists. Where was Buffy? But before her eyes could seek out the answer to that question, a single familiar voice cut into the conversation.

"There won't be any fight, Jabba."

The whole crowd drew in a gasp as three robed figures stepped out into the empty sand in front of the sail barge. Guns swung down to point at them. Faith could feel the familiar strands of the Force, bright, around them. She could feel Luke there even as she recognized his voice. Just like she could feel Dawn and Willow next to him.

_Well, I'm certainly glad you didn't let me get in the way of your semi-nude plan._

Faith jumped at the voice inside her head. And then, because she had moved too much for the guard next to her, she jumped again as the bite of electricity zipped through her for a moment. Hand on the rail to steady herself.

_Jesus, Red! Didn't this Yoda guy teach you to knock first? _

_Well, you didn't come with me, so you wouldn't know, would you?_ Without facial expressions, the tone was hard to read._ So, were you planning the big escape _before_ or _after_ Han gets thrown down into the big pit o' death?_ Okay, maybe not that hard to read.

_Before. And it wasn't supposed to be like this—_ Here is where she should say that Buffy hadn't helped matters and could've made this whole thing a lot easier and metal and leather bikinis hadn't really been in the plan, but, below, Luke had thrown the hood back from his face and stood in front of Jabba, unconcerned about the array of weapons targeting him.

"This will be your last chance to release my friends."

From inside the sail barge, a belly laugh.

In Faith's head, Willow, still: _Oh, and what was it supposed to be like, Faith? Like you getting to be the hero? Like you always want to do it alone. Everything. At least Lando let us know you needed help…._

Faith didn't need this now. Didn't need the mindfuck, didn't need Willow in her head, talking about what Faith did or didn't want to do alone, when Buffy was nowhere to be seen and Luke was talking to Jabba and Jabba was talking to Luke—

"His Excellency wonders if this is your negotiation, Jedi? You sent your droids as a token of your good will to bargain, but His Excellency fails to see what you have to offer Him that could equal the prizes He currently has."

"I offer you your life, Jabba."

Laughter again, this time from the crowd.

"His Excellency suggests it is not His life you should be concerned with." The gangster was already raising a bloated hand.

And some part of Faith knew that raised hand had to be a signal to something she'd rather not have happen. But she had been too busy watching Luke, too busy watching Jabba laughing, pulling Leia to him, too busy with Willow in her head pointing out how all of this hadn't gone according to plan. Too busy, in the end, to see the figure on that closest boat take one look at Faith and then close her eyes to lean into Boba Fett's needle. In and out and he ripped away the robe that had concealed her, leaving her to take that impossible leap from ship to ship, until those booted feet landed. And, turning, Faith found Buffy and her own lightsaber, raised. But, by then, a needle was already sinking into her own neck.

Another thing Faith had been too busy to see.

The drug exploding in her brain. Hand up to take the needle still quivering there and throw it. Shaking her head as if she could get out what was already in there. Flailing one arm back to send the guard that had injected her over the railing to the pit below. Grabbing onto the railing herself.

Somewhere else voices Faith that knew were yelling "Buffy!" Somewhere else there was chaos and gunfire and the hiss of lightsabers and fighting on the sand below. Somewhere else R-2 was cutting through Leia's chain and dispensing a lightsaber out of the top of his canister for her hand.

That was all somewhere else.

In front of her, there was just a slayer with unrecognizable eyes and a blade of light that was going to kill her. The clarity of action and reaction. The need to do the killing first herself. She raised her hands just enough to use the blade coming down to cut away her bonds.

Hands free and then the lightsaber was arcing towards her again. She leaned back and let it go through the air where her head had been and then took the wrist that held it, slamming it into the railing. The metal hilt slipped out of those fingers and clattered down on the metal floor. But before she could bend for it, the blonde spun around with a backfist that split her lip again. She tasted blood. She returned the dirty punch with one of her own, and the other slayer staggered back.

Scrambling for the lightsaber, she didn't even see the blaster fire crossing overhead, didn't see Luke take a flying leap to land next to Han and Chewie, didn't see Dawn and Willow both calling out to the girl they'd been searching for these three years, didn't see Willow's outstretched hand send a bevy of guards that got in the way toppling like toys into the sand.

Turning, instead, to the fight in front of her. Blue blade flaring to slice at the exposed middle of the other. Tanned skin and leather and threat. The other slayer dodged and rolled, wrapping legs around her own and jerking to pull her down. Falling didn't even hurt. On the way down, she caught the blonde a long cut on her thigh. The scream was nothing but the sound of success.

A blaster's shot whizzed over her shoulder. She didn't trace it back to Dawn...just hit the floor and rolled. Threat everywhere. The world a haze of it. Just one thing to avoid after another. One thing to kill at a time. Right now, tangling with one, pressing that slim body down into the metal under her own until, with a growl, the other slayer flipped her, and then she was the one pressed, head dangling off the side over the tentacled creature below.

The word "Faith!" came from the rest of the world that was not her and the slayer on top of her. Others were falling into the pit below her. Others were getting eaten.

But she could only look at the face above her own. The face that was morphing into every demon she had ever known. All the blood draining to her head. Dangling. Demons were easy. Demons she killed. One hand reaching up for the soft of the other girl's throat, but finding only the stiff metal collar. She grabbed it, and threw collar and girl together into the railing so hard that the blonde flipped over it, fingers barely catching it on the other side to hold on.

The word "Faith!" from all corners now. Standing, blood rushing back down into the rest of her body, leaving her head drained. Squinting to make everything stay still in the heat. Lightsaber in her hand. She could feel it there. She could see that her hand had brought it up in order to bring it down again to cut through those fingers where they held. Purple eyes staring up at her in a face she knew from somewhere. A world of shouting and killing. Head disconnected from hand. Heart beating fast and loud in her ears. Everything tilted and strange.

"Faith!"

"Buffy!"

She could see the blade on its way to connect the two of them in that perfect way battle connects before it decouples into victory and separate defeat. On its way, until a body crashed into her own and knocked the breath from her lungs and then she and Dawn were toppling over the lip of the railing in one knotted mess of limbs that hit the sand below and started sliding.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Originally intended this one to be longer, but it didn't come easily and life interfered, so here's a little something to tide you over. Enjoy!

* * *

Sand everywhere. Like three years hadn't happened and she was still fresh out of prison with alien grit in her mouth. She closed her hand and found the lightsaber had slipped out somewhere, so she just made a fist instead. Someone was grabbing at her. Her punch glanced off the younger girl's shoulder. They were too close to make it effective.

"Hey! What the hell is the matter with you, Faith?!?" The counterpunch was equally ineffective. And now more grains of sand were sliding and giving way for them.

Some dim memory that that was her name. That this girl tangled up with her she knew, too. "I—" The sentence had nowhere to go, even if the other girl had wanted to wait and see.

"That was Buffy! You tried to kill Buffy!" The girl called back to the ship they'd fallen from, digging her heels in to keep from slipping further. "Is Faith killing people again?"

"I don't know, Dawn. She was a little less hostile than that the last time I saw her." A redhead yelling back down to them over her shoulder.

Dawn? The enemy now? The girl had a lightsaber in her hand, so make that a probably yes. People trying to kill her. Someone always trying to use her own weapon against her. She needed to keep her weapons in her hands. Stop losing them.

"Well, I don't want to grab onto her if she's all psycho again! And I could sort of use some help with the slippage problem down here!"

"Hang on! Let me get Buffy up and then I'll—"

Faith didn't wait for the end of that conversation, but instead lunged for Dawn's lightsaber, the heat shimmering in front of her, faces blurry and strange. But the heel of a hand caught her square in the nose and she slid lower.

"Yep, she's killing people again!" Yelling the confirmation to the others above, before leveling the lightsaber. "I should kill you. I mean, _even Buffy_ would kill you." Blowing a breath out her nose, hard. "I should, but I shouldn't. Because it's the Dark Side. Because it's wrong."

Because it's wrong.

The words echoing in Faith's head. Time and sand swimming. Like she remembered saying that once. Like she was saying it but seeing the blonde who had been her enemy above. Buffy? A glance up told her that Buffy was back on her feet, under the steadying hands of another girl. The redhead she knew. Willow? There was shaking and crying. Willow had her arms around Buffy.

Focus. There was a lightsaber pointed at her. She should be reaching for that. Everything telling her to yank it from the younger girl's hand and slice her in half. Be done with it. Get back to what was clear.

Apparently it showed in her face.

"Don't even look at me like that!" Dawn's booted foot came up between them and kicked out, pushing her a few feet further down. But then Faith didn't let go of the boot. The boot was attached to Dawn who was attached to the weapon. And she needed a weapon.

Then she _really_ needed a weapon. A tentacle wound its way up one leather-clad calf and started to yank her down, left her with one hand on Dawn's boot while the other raked through sand, so they were both getting yanked downwards, yelling, and Faith didn't have a weapon so she beat at the tentacle with one fist, and, when that made no dent, with her teeth.

"Gross! You're _not_ going to bite through it!"

Faith had a mouthful of scale and grit and there was already another feeler on its way over to help with Faith's other kicking leg.

"Oh, for crying out loud…." Dawn slid down and past, slicing through the feeler. A squeal from the beast that felt it.

"Faith!"

Her name from above. Her head snapping up to see a girl in hardly anything at all swinging over from the other ship, lightsaber in hand, covered in a greenish slime that was something's blood. Leia. Leia was a killer, too. She was a killer and she was yelling out Faith's name.

Faith let go with her teeth, unwrapped the severed limb from her leg, and held it like a club, beating back other vengeful ones that were still coming. Dawn was slipping next to her, cutting more effectively with her Jedi weapon. Centered. They had a common enemy. They were still sliding. There were teeth down there.

"Dawn! Faith!"

Leia on her stomach at the edge, dangling the same long chain that had been around her neck. Dangling it down to them. Dawn caught it and clambered up first, dusting herself off at the top, looking back down.

"Are you sure you want to let her up?"

"Dawn, it's Faith!"

"My point."

"Dawn!"

And then Faith was up the lifeline, looking around to see where the fight was this time. Dawn rushed to Buffy. Willow was already there, arm around that slim waist to hold the shaking slayer up. The blonde's alien eyes trying to understand, mouth opening to form names she'd given up on ever saying. Dawn clamped to her, Willow's hand brushing the blonde locks out of her eyes. Concern. Love.

Faith spun to find something else. In the chaos of this battle, there had to be something. Jump back over the edge and go after the sarlacc at the bottom, if it came to that. But the blaster fire was still arcing over to the ship next to theirs. The one with Han and Chewie and Luke on it, fighting. The one with Luke and Boba Fett. With the bounty hunter trying for a shot at Han, if he could get it, or at Buffy. He would try for Buffy. The collar control was still hanging off his utility belt. He would try.

And in a flash she was over there. Booted feet landing on metal in the middle of it. She had one guard's neck broken before he even knew she was there. Another pointed a blaster at her only to see it turn to point at his belly. She helped with the trigger, and he was down. She was a killing machine. Chewie sent another one over the edge. They worked back to back, dodging a smattering of gunfire coming from the main sail barge still. The Wookie swiped another guard's gun and fired back. Faith kicked the weaponless alien to the sarlacc below. Han held his hands up for Chewie to blast his cuffs, and then he was free, moving towards Boba Fett at one end of the ship. Boba Fett, who was still holding the Jedi at bay with a blizzard of shots Luke's lightsaber blurred to meet.

Han was not going to get there first. Boba Fett was hers. Even if she had to jump in there without any weapon but her hands. Her hands were pretty damn effective: one catching at the bounty hunter's blaster-holding hand, pushing it aside to fire off into space while she jabbed with the other fist into the soft of stomach.

She meant to double him over.

But the armor was more than she expected—lightweight but stiff, bruising, ungiving. Caught her off guard. A blade flicked out of a compartment on his wrist and sliced for her own exposed stomach. Sucked it in in time, but his backswing caught her a line across the face. Blood in her eyes. Hand catching blade-wielding wrist so that they were dancing, hand in hand times two. One twist and she'd broken one wrist, broken fingers, making him drop the gun over the side. He hardly made a sound, nothing from behind the mask even when he head-butted her and jammed that metal façade right into her nose. Sent her reeling backwards.

Dimly aware of her name from elsewhere. She was keeping this fight so tight that no one else could get in. He was hers. He had hurt people she loved.

She'd inadvertently let go of that blade, so it came back to bite her again, this time cutting into her shoulder. Blood there, too. Not that she cared. Hold the blade out of play, punch into the intersections of that armor. Smarter. Getting him to bend a little to say she'd found her mark. Grab for the base of that helmet that covered who he was, that wouldn't give her the satisfaction of a face in pain. Grab to pull it off, some dim awareness that she was screaming about the mask. About taking it off.

And then the electricity hit her.

Seeing, as she fell, the two buttons his broken hand had managed to jam down. Hearing "Fai—!" before a glance told her that Buffy was falling, too. Unable to breathe. Pain. And he was going to get away, throwing the control down into the sand as the rocket on his back lit and he was away.

Chewie fired into the sand, kicking up grit and bits of the pulverized control. The current stopped.

Boba Fett was gone.

There was just her own breath, loud in her ears as she tried to catch it. Her own breath, and the dead all around her here and on the other ship and on the main sail barge and on the sand below, a lot of them she'd killed. People she knew still standing with their weapons, covered variously in blood and the slime of blood, looking at each other or not, holding onto each other or not.

In the distance, the Millennium Falcon riding low over the sand.

"Lando." Luke squinted into the suns.

"Great." Han looked, too, trying to conjure the familiar ship out of the haze of his half-blindness. "Just in time to be unhelpful."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: And here's another. May be a little longer before the next, so I tried to give y'all something to chew on here. Enjoy! Credit Wookiepedia again for some of the details.

* * *

"So, wait, I don't understand…how are you guys _here_?" The blonde slayer's hand waved vaguely at everything. The whole universe, and also the smaller universe of the adobe building they were in, the people she knew and Leia, whom she didn't know. Her hand shook and she frowned at it.

"You mean here, like this is New Mexico, but weird?" Willow grabbed that shaking hand. "Or maybe weirder." Looking around her. "I don't know, is New Mexico baseline weird?"

Buffy and Dawn just stared.

Willow stared back. "What? There's adobe here, too."

Dawn blew a breath out. "Okay, maybe that was a bit much for the beginning." She leveled a look at the redhead, then back to her sister. "In case any clarification was needed, this is not New Mexico."

Buffy nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose. Everything was throbbing, confusing. "Yeah, I got that."

"Right, it's like a whole different dimension."

"I know, Dawn, but I must've gotten here through that portal. And you guys just showed up…?"

"Actually they've been here for a while." At Leia's words, Dawn and Willow and Buffy all turned to stare at her. Leia looked right back, lacing up her leather boots now that she'd finally gotten a few more clothes on. "Three years. You were probably just about to say that." Her dark eyes flicked from the three faces that were now turning to look at each other over to where Faith leaned in front of the piece of polished metal that served as a mirror.

"Three _years_?" Buffy's hand slipped out of Willow's and joined the other to sweep across her face and brush her hair back out of her eyes. She caught Dawn staring at her and thought her eyes must still be purple. Faded, but still. She glanced across the room to the other slayer. The fading anger there. The after-fight. Faith wasn't looking at her. "I mean, I didn't even have a lot of hope that Faith was actually here." Slayer dreams. Dreams of the everyday kind. It got hard to tell the difference. "Some, maybe, but I wasn't sure until I saw her. And you guys have been…."

Dawn bounced off her seat, then thought better of it and sat down again, trying to breathe deep. Jedis were supposed to be calm. "The Powers sent us here and we were looking. And then we didn't know where to look. We sort of thought you'd find the Rebellion because it's like what's Good here and—"

Willow stayed right next to Buffy. "_I_ was looking. And I was going to come here, to Tatooine, because that's where Faith said she showed up, so I thought you might have come here, too. But then with the Rebellion and the fighting…" Her head snapped over to the other slayer in the corner. "Wait! Faith! You knew! Ohmygod, you knew and that's why you kept trying to get over here and—"

Buffy was trying to follow. "Kept trying to get over here? Faith did?"

But Willow kept going, on her feet now. "And that's why you didn't want me to come with you after—" She stopped herself before opening that can of worms. "That's why you didn't want me to come until after you'd already been the one to get to her first!"

Now Dawn was on her feet, calm Jedi training or not. "You knew!?! I can't believe you knew and didn't say anything!" Staring. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Faith kept her eyes on the mirror in front of her. Her eyes didn't look purple, as far as she could see. Normal. Brown and dark. "You look like you feel pretty comfortable speakin' for me." Had she imagined it all? Had she imagined that need to kill? She looked normal. Well, as normal as you can look with a cut slicing across the middle of her face: one cheekbone to the middle of her nose to dig into the eyebrow on the other side. At least Leia had helped her wipe away some of the blood.

"And of course you'd want to get to her first! Get to her so you could kill her!"

"Right, that's just exactly what I was tryin' to do." She could still feel the Force tumbling and roiling in her. And feel the fight in the other slayer, too. A glance told her Buffy was trying to keep from shaking, and staying stiff to do it. Willow was right there next to her, just loving that she could be the strong one.

"What you were _trying_ to do?" Dawn was still yelling. "It's what I _saw_ you do_ing_!"

And then Leia was on her feet, too. "Dawn, it was _Buffy_ that tried to kill _Faith_ when they first fought. She tried to choke her!" Leia clenched her fist because she hadn't been able to stop it. Hadn't been able to do anything about most of this.

Dawn looked to her sister, only to find the older girl holding her head in her hands, white knuckled. "Well, maybe, but there's some sort of reason…I mean, people's eyes just aren't—"

The Princess jumped on that. "Faith was drugged, too!"

"But her eyes aren't—"

"I didn't say it was the _same_ thing…I just know I saw the needle go in." Leia glanced over at Faith, who had her eyes squeezed shut, still with her back to the room. Leia could see the tension in the muscles of her shoulders, the angry cut on one side. "Tell them, Faith!"

"Doesn't matter what I say. They'll still think I'm a killer."

Dawn's mouth opened, then shut again as she slumped back down next to Buffy. "I don't know…."

"Faith is not the problem." Buffy's voice cut into the middle of everything, a little hoarse.

Willow sat up straighter on the blonde's other side. "Well, whatever the problem is, we'll fix it. That's what we do." Smiling brightly.

And Buffy looked over at the redhead next to her, brows furrowed as if considering whether that could be possible.

Dawn jumped in. "Yeah, I'm sure the Rebellion has doctors. Whatever's going wrong with you…. You know they put Luke into some sort of bacta tank thing when he had frostbite on Hoth and…."

"Bacta tank?" Buffy felt like she was repeating everything, like she couldn't get a handle on any of this. Willow provided an arm around her shoulders and a part of her just wanted to slump back into it. So she did. It was familiar.

"Yeah, bacta tank. It's not the most flattering thing and there's this sort of diaper you have to wear, but—"

"I'd have to wear a diaper?"

Willow's eyes were lit up. "But if you're hurting, I can probably help with that here."

At Willow's words, Faith finally turned. "Thought you couldn't do that magic shit where we are now."

The witch raised her chin a little, meeting those dark eyes. "Well, it's not the same kind of magic, maybe, but magic's just manipulating the earth's energies. Here it's the Force. Yoda said I don't have the same finesse with the lightsaber that a Jedi might have, but I'm better at the mind stuff. Just like I was really getting good with the magic back home."

"Better at the 'mind stuff'? Like when you just about sent both me and Vader over the edge together when we were goin' after Luke?"

"I'm better…I've been working on it!"

"I'm just sayin' this is B, and not some bad guy you're practicin' on and—"

"You think I don't know it's Buffy?! You think Buffy doesn't trust me?" She glanced down at the blonde leaning into her arm, shaking, then back to Faith as if to say _what do you think this is_. "At least I've tried to get _some_ training. All _you_ do is keep going off half-cocked!"

"I didn't go to fuckin' Dagobah with you because I was trying to get here! To B!"

"Oh, so now you admit you knew she was here all along!"

"Fuck you!"

"You already did that!" As soon as Willow said it, she clapped a hand over her mouth, looking to see who'd noticed.

Dawn's loud "What?" was a pretty good indication she'd heard it. "Faith did _what_?"

"Everybody! Please. I can't do this right now. It's just…." Buffy's strained voice broke in.

Dawn grabbed her sister's hand, forcing herself to leave her curiosity for the moment. "Leia, we need to get Buffy to the Rebellion's doctors. I don't know why we're just sitting her on Tatooine when we should be going."

"We're here because Luke wanted to visit some graves. His aunt and uncle. The Empire killed his family." Leia looked out the doorway to the fading sunlight outside before looking back at Dawn. "And we need to decide whether it's safe to bring Buffy with us."

"What do you mean 'safe'? It's a lot safer for her if we get doctors to tell us if she's okay. She's got these scars and purple eyes and these blotchy things on her skin—"

"I don't mean safe for Buffy. I mean safe for us." Leia put her hands out to ward off the angry retort Dawn was about to make. "No offense meant to Buffy. But I've seen what she can do. And I don't think any of us know how in control she is."

"Hello. Sitting right here."

Dawn glared. "Right, she's sitting right here and she is in control."

"But I thought you just said we needed to get her to the doctor—"

Willow ran right over Leia's comment. "She will be in control as soon as I help take a little of the edge off. She'll be fine and then we can go and we'll all be together again, like we were supposed to be."

Buffy was leaning into Willow's side. "I just…it's like all I've done is fight for the last three years. All my friends were gone, and they made me fight and kill until I wanted to…." She squeezed her eyes shut, but when she opened them they were still purple. Across the room, Faith could feel the adrenalin and took a step in that direction.

But Willow was there first, placing a hand on Buffy's forehead, closing her own eyes. "I can help. Buffy, I'm here."

Faith could practically see the strands of the Force twisting, Buffy's brow furrowing, then relaxing a little. Faith reached for the lightsaber on the table near the door and flicked it on. The blade hummed to life.

"Faith." Leia took a half-step towards her, but Faith was already stepping past her to Buffy.

Purple eyes fixed on dark brown. Dawn went for her lightsaber, but wasn't fast enough. Faith had hers up to Buffy's neck first. With a flick of her wrist, she cut the collar there, and it slipped down and to the floor. Everyone stared. Dawn's lightsaber was humming now. Faith didn't even look at her, bringing the blade up to cut her own collar. Then, without a word, she turned the weapon off, clipped it to her belt, and walked out the door into the fading light.

* * *

Faith found Han and Lando in the docking bay a few doors down. She remembered when she and Luke and Ben had sought out the Millennium Falcon the first time they were in Mos Eisley. A long time ago, it seemed like.

The two men stood next to a few shipping crates, talking. Through an open doorway, she could see Chewie in the next bay over, tinkering with another ship that must've been Luke's. The door hardly had time to hiss shut behind her before Lando was walking over, hands out, voice carefully contrite.

"Faith, I didn't know what Jabba was going to do. It was the easiest way to get in there to see what was happening with you and Leia. The Huts deal in spice, and that was what I'd heard he was in the market for."

She kept her hands to herself, arms crossed, giving him nothing to reach for. "So there was something? He did give me something?"

"Well, sure. I'm sure you must've felt it. But you have to realize that I didn't know what he was planning. I knew he did fights, but I couldn't have—"

"Yeah, I felt something. But then I get back here and my eyes ain't purple. Hers are."

"You mean the blonde slave?"

"Her name is Buffy."

Han put a hand on Lando's shoulder. "Faith knows her. They're friends." A glance at Faith. "Sort of."

Lando nodded. "My apologies. Buffy. I believe Buffy was under the effects of the spice, tempest, which makes her—"

"Makes her all fight-y, I know. Han told me."

"Mostly because she's been on it for some time, I'd imagine. Over time it does that…the loss of self-control, the feeling of invulnerability…."

"Yeah, yeah, I got all that. Big nastiness."

"But the yarrock I sold Jabba would be better for you because you might not fight otherwise."

"What makes you say that? Kind of a slayer over here. Built for fighting."

"Well, I just assumed…." Lando trailed off, looking from the glowering slayer to Han.

Han stepped in. "Faith, he's just trying to say that yarrock's what's going to make you feel like you _have_ to fight. Like everyone's going to kill you if you don't kill them first." He paused. "Although you and Buffy did sort of have a tendency to fight, from what I—"

"But that didn't mean I would've killed her! We were going to work together! Get everybody out of there!"

Lando glided in again with his smile. "Except she didn't cooperate, and you were pumped full of yarrock. Faith, I'm sorry. When I heard Jabba was in the market…."

"And the market's good, apparently." Han had one boot up on one of the shipping crates. "I mean look at all this! Think of all the upgrades I could make to the Falcon with this!"

"Han, I traded for that, fair and square." Lando's smile faded as he stepped in between Han and the crates.

"You killed a spice dealer, took his spice, and then got paid for it when you dealt it to a big slug who was holding us captive."

"And _I _did all of that."

"Right, all because of an opportunity that came up because you sold me to the Empire when you cut a deal with Vader!"

"What was I supposed to do? I was just trying to run my business! I didn't seek you out!" He glanced at Faith as if to pull her on his side.

"Don't look at me. You know what Vader did to me there."

Lando's smile instantly dropped back into contrition. "Right, another thing for which I apologize. I had no idea—"

"Seems like you get yourself in the middle of a lot of shit you don't know. And come out pretty well for it." She nodded down to the crates.

"He does." Han's eyes followed Faith's, turning back just in time to see the slayer disappearing through the doorway.

* * *

Being a wretched hive of slum and villainy, Mos Eisley had just as many of its denizens walking around at night as during the day. All of them armed and strange. Whatever they were, they had the sense not to bother her. She almost wished they would. It would give her an excuse.

Faith wondered if it was the cut jagging across her face that made them look away. Or the lightsaber, still ready and apparent at her waistband.

She'd never bothered to change clothes. The night air felt cool against the exposed skin of her stomach and back. The chunk of skin gouged out of her shoulder was already healing up into an angry scar.

Boba Fett had gotten away. She'd let him get away and she'd nearly killed Buffy and now Willow was in there working some sort of magic to make the blonde feel better and, with her sister and the redhead with her now, Faith was sure it _would_ be better for Buffy. Just what Buffy wanted.

Funny. Tatooine had two suns, but three moons. She didn't know why she had thought there would be the same number of each. Somehow that would've made sense.

Her leather creaked a little as she jumped from fence to rooftop and walked from the top of building to building under the stars. Testing herself with longer and longer leaps in between those flat, cooling adobe tops. Even brighter up here. This much moonlight would've made slaying a walk in the park.

Not that there was anything to slay here. Lots of aliens, but the worst things seemed to wear hard plastic. And masks. Lots of masks.

Boba Fett had gotten away.

Buffy'd never mentioned him in those dreams they'd shared. Not that Faith had mentioned where she was. All in all, not the best means of communication, really. Although Buffy had said she'd needed Faith. And Faith had come.

Of course, if Buffy'd known Dawn and Willow were here, the chances of her asking for Faith were about slim and none.

She almost missed that jump, scrabbling with her fingers to hold on, jam her boot into the wall to make a foothold and then another and propel herself up again. The fingers on one hand bled for a minute and then stopped. The slayer in her doing the fast healing. It was still humming from the drug earlier—it _had_ been a drug—and the fight and the proximity of the other slayer and probably other things, too.

Faith wondered how Buffy was handling it. After all, her slayer had been fighting for about three years straight.

She closed her eyes and reached out for that line of the Force or slayer or whatever it was between them here. It was bright and taut.

Guess Willow hadn't been able to fix everything.

She couldn't help but smile at that, staring off into the desert nothingness and the stars. In the distance, she could see Luke coming out of that desert in his speeder. First his aunt and uncle. Now Vader, who was worse than dead. They'd barely even had a chance to talk about it, what with everything else, and her not really wanting to talk about Vader.

Even as she saw him pull into town, Faith made out the shape of Dawn walking out in the dark to greet him. Of course, he'd probably want to talk to her about it. Dawn was probably better with all that sharing stuff. And how exactly do you tell someone that you really want to kill their dad for the torture, for reading her mind and finding Buffy there, for recognizing the killer in her? Dawn would probably say that was the Dark Side.

Which sort of left her wondering what type of killing wasn't the Dark Side. Because they were all walking around with these fancy lightsabers that were very handy in killing things.

That was probably the sort of thing they taught you in that Jedi training she kept missing.

Dawn and Luke could figure out how to tell the difference. Willow, she was less sure about. But what did she know?

Her boots hit the ground as she somersaulted down from the roof. She found that they were walking in the direction from whence she'd come. Towards the adobe structure with the courtyard in the middle. Rooms all around. Rented for the night until they would get up in the morning and Dawn and Willow would be there with Buffy and they'd all fly back to the Rebellion with this new hero to fight the Good fight.

The rest of the lights were out. Her senses—those less refined ones—were picking up the Force: the pull from all the powerful people around her, the twists in it still from earlier. Faith frowned at that last part. She had thought they would've smoothed out by now. Her slayer hearing could pick up scattered voices: Dawn and Luke outside, the breaths of Leia's exhausted sleep, murmuring coming from Buffy's room.

Who knows what horror might be filling her dreams. All the shit Faith had left her alone to deal with. Faith's fingers fluttered up to the skin around her own neck where it still bore a slight burn. And that was just from one day. The mark would be gone by tomorrow because what the slayer did was heal the wounds as fast as you could make them. Buffy's would take longer to heal. And now there was going to be withdrawal, too. Faith could feel the pull of energy that told her the anger and the drug was still in there and Faith's feet had found their way to Buffy's doorway in the middle of all this, her hand hovering over the button to open it and her breath coming fast as if she'd been running all over town—which she sort of had been—and running had come back here, out of breath, eyes alive in the moonlight.

What could she possibly have to say to Buffy? What could Buffy possibly have to say to her?

But then there was another voice from inside the room and, before she could even stop her fingers or knew what they were doing, they'd already pushed the button underneath them, sending the door hissing silently away.

The light was no different in there. Shadows and moonlight.

Buffy was curled on the bed, facing Willow, who had a hand on Buffy's forehead like she'd had before. Neither of them looked up. Faith couldn't move. The energy pouring off of the slayer who had been fighting for so long, shaking now, eyes closed, leaning into that hand. Willow's other hand brushing that blonde mane back from her face, sliding down to take the fisted hand, thumb rubbing across the knuckles.

Faith knew she should go.

Buffy murmured as she shifted a little, flexing her fingers and then intertwining them with Willow's fingers. Eyes squeezed shut. Willow's eyes were open and looking at that face only inches from her own.

Faith knew exactly what Willow was seeing: this beautiful girl, lips parted, who might actually need her, for once. The girl who was less a girl than a mythology, wrapped up in what Willow had been looking for for three years. Had actually been looking her whole life for. The girl who made her seem special, too, by reflection.

Faith would've reached out and kissed her, too.

But that didn't mean she didn't blink when she saw Willow do it, her mouth falling open at the kiss that started with Willow and then became the both of them, Buffy's eyes still closed. Willow's eyes closed, too, now, as she held onto those fingers entwined with her own. Buffy's fingers entwined with her own. Kissing the hero that she'd seen save the world time and time again, her hand sliding down from forehead to bare shoulder to the curve of her side to pull Buffy closer. Buffy willing to be pulled, pressing in, her own hand fluttering to grab at the other girl because here was something, finally, that felt good. Mouths finding each other. Buffy tipping her head back to let those kisses run down her throat. Years of fighting and Faith could tell she'd hardly eaten, much less had the other sort of release.

Faith wanted to look away.

She didn't want to see Willow's hand moving around to cup a breast. Didn't want to see Buffy leaning into it and threading her fingers through the redhead's hair to hold the back of her neck as those kisses made their way down to the top of each curve. Both of their eyes still closed, both of their hands moving to pull each other closer, the leather top falling away to reveal each perfect breast, fingers brushing at skin, Willow's thumb fitting into the hollow on the inside of Buffy's hip bone and then down to the small space there between skin and the chain mail and leather that made up that token of clothing she was wearing, finger sliding along the inside of that waistband.

"Faith? What're you—" A whisper in the dark.

Faith could see the glow of the lightsaber out of the corner of her eye before she could see Dawn. Little sister, ready to protect. You couldn't blame her for that.

"Faith, that's Buffy's—" Then she was next to Faith, seeing what Faith was seeing. "Ohmygod, Buffy! Willow!"

The last part was loud enough to rouse the room's inhabitants, two pairs of eyes flying open. Willow practically leapt out of the bed. Buffy scooted back in it, pulling the sheets up around her chest, looking from Dawn to Faith to Willow back to Faith as if trying to figure out where she was.

Willow's words were stumbling over themselves. "Dawnie, I know. I didn't mean…I know Buffy's straight and it was one of those things that just happened in the moment and both of us—"

"In the moment? _Now_? _Now_ seemed like a good _moment_ to have sex with my sister?"

"We were both—"

Faith could still see the glow in Willow's face, as much as she might be trying to hide it, to downplay what this had been, for Dawn's benefit. Willow was still saying "we."

It was a few minutes before Dawn and Willow even realized Faith had gone.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Whew! Changed jobs, moved, and managed to completely flummox the company providing my internet. Thanks for your patience

* * *

"Faith? You're still awake? I thought—"

Lando didn't get a chance to finish whatever he was thinking before Faith slammed him up against the side of the docking bay.

The "hey!" came at the same time from Lando and Han. The latter stood over the upset box that had been between the two men. Money, some sort of playing chips scattered on the floor.

The slayer kept her eyes on the still-pinned Lando, but threw her words over her shoulder to the smuggler. "You shouldn't even be here."

Han was picking up the money. "It was just a game."

"Yeah, and next thing you know, you've lost the Falcon again and Chewie's havin' to stick out a leg." She sighed. "You should be with Leia. That's what couples do."

"But—"

"Look, I don't wanna hear it!" Her words came out louder than she intended. She forced herself to take a breath. "She had to slice through Jabba and who knows how many others to get away today. Don't you think she might wanna be with someone that's not gonna bleed slime on her?"

A pause. Then: "Right."

A glance confirmed he was gone.

Lando's eyes flicked from the doorway back to the dark eyes in front of him. That bare skin. The waves of brown over her shoulders. He tried for a smile. "Faith, if you're looking for some company…."

"Oh, go fuck yourself. I need some eldratz."

The smile fell away. "I'm sorry?"

"That shit they were givin' B. Eldratz. The stuff that makes it easier. That makes you not care. You know where to get it." It wasn't a question.

"Well, I have a few contacts I could try, but most people won't deal in it. I'm not sure where Boba Fett and Jabba were even finding it." The arm across his throat was still pressing him to the wall. Nothing he'd said yet had convinced it to loosen up. "If I can find it, it's going to be expensive."

"Good thing I'm not paying for it, then."

"But I can't just…."

It took all of Faith's restraint not to blow up then and there. "What, you're gonna decide _this_ is the thing you're _not_ gonna do?"

One look told him that he wasn't going to decide that. That, in fact, he would do this. That it was the least he could do, after what he'd put her through. He tried not to remember what she'd looked like on the table on Cloud City, half-delirious from the pain, Vader looming over her.

"Alright." The arm stayed where it was. He supposed he should count himself lucky that it wasn't the lightsaber at his throat. Although, in the end, he was sure she was dangerous with any weapon at hand. "I said alright, I'll do it. I'll put out some feelers and—"

She let him go. "I'll be in the cantina."

"Tonight? How am I supposed to—?"

But she and her skin and her leather and her weapons were already gone.

* * *

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there, or how many drinks she'd had. She might not have been able to feel her lips, but she still felt the other slayer before she saw her. She didn't even need to turn from the bar or the several sticky rings her drinks had already left there. She threw her words at the approaching slayer.

"I fucked Red."

Faith heard the footsteps beside her stop, then resume again. The chair next to her scraped back. Faith let go a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"As far as pick-up lines go, that one needs work." The voice was hoarse, tough to read.

"Just puttin' that out there. Don't want to be in the middle of any of that girl drama shit." Faith stared into her drink. Something that color blue should taste better.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure there'll be drama. Dawn's got a lightsaber after all." Buffy perched herself on the edge of the seat. "But it's not what you think."

Faith felt eyes on her. If she looked over there she was going to get all sorts of images in her head, so she didn't. "Really? What do I think?"

Buffy's hands shook a little as a fingernail picked at the edge of the bar. "I don't know."

Faith waited to see if she was going to say something else. When she didn't, Faith pushed her drink over in front of the blonde with the back of her hand. So they weren't going to talk right now about Willow. Fine by her. Buffy didn't wait before picking up the glass, but she hesitated before putting it to her lips. Out of the corner of her eye, Faith could see her inspecting the contents.

"Is that a worm in here?"

"Think of it as tequila. But, you know, without the tequila."

"Which pretty much leaves me with an invertebrate."

Faith waved a hand at the bartender, who frowned but came over. "I need something else for her." He started to ask a question and she cut him off. "I don't care. Something that tastes better and looks prettier…something somebody like her would want. Without grubs."

"Who's paying for all this?"

"Put it on Lando's tab."

The bartender shrugged. What was it to him who paid? He went to back to his bottles.

"Thanks." The voice was tight next to her. Buffy cleared her throat, twirling the glass in front of her. "Anyway, sounds like I ended up in the middle of yours."

"What now?" Faith couldn't remember if she'd ever just sat at a bar with Buffy. Danced, sure, that once, but….

"Your, um, 'girl drama.'" Eyes fastened on Faith, but Faith still wasn't looking. "You and…Willow? I know I've been away for a while and this is bizarro world, but…."

So now they were talking about Willow again. Faith shrugged. "Just fuckin'."

"Oh?"

Faith took the drink back. "Don't gimme that 'oh' shit, B…not like you don't know what I'm talkin' about." If Buffy wasn't going to drink it, she was. And if she didn't hold something in her hand, it would start shaking like the blonde's.

"Faith, I wasn't trying to pick a fight. I remember you and your 'H & H.'"

"And I remember you tryin' to tell me all you ever felt was some jonesin' for a little fro-yo."

"Okay, so that was a little bit of an understatement." Buffy heard Faith's sniff and saw one corner of those lips tip up. Her own lips smiled a little. "And is it just me, or is the term 'fro-yo' woefully out of place here?"

She caught Faith's eyes before the two of them turned to look around the bar with its strange and tough characters. Voices that sounded like crackling static or barking animals. Lots of weapons. Faith could feel the metal of her own bump against her hip bone when she shifted. She was sure Buffy was armed as well, although she couldn't for the life of her say where the weapon was in that outfit. And she was not going to think about that outfit.

Frozen yogurt was impossible. Although there was still soft jazz.

The bartender slid a drink in front of Buffy. This one bright red. The blonde stared at the color.

"How nature says _stay away_." She rubbed at the spot between her eyes, squeezing them shut for a moment before opening them again. "Oh, fuck it. Whatever." She grimaced, threw her head back, and drank, shivering as it went down. Faith couldn't help but chuckle at the face she made. You can take the girl out of Sunnydale, but….

"Listen to that mouth on you, B. Just look what happens when you hang out with a bad element." Faith glanced over, finding Buffy's eyes almost normal. A muddled green. Her face strained. Skittish. The drug must be wearing off. Now as to whether that made things better or worse….

"Like you?" Those eyes found Faith over the rim and then closed as she took another swallow. "A bad element like you?"

Faith's eyes darkened a little, but she kept her voice light. "Probably. But most of the elements we hang out with are bad. That's why we slay 'em. Ain't so much of a line, really, between us and them."

"Of course there's a line!" Buffy was a little too quick with her answer and avoided the eyebrow the other slayer was arching. She forced herself to take a breath and start again. "Faith, what are we doing here?"

"You jumped in a portal."

"Well, I wasn't trying to get _here_!" Buffy noticed Faith's stare and hurried on before they could get into what she _had_ been intending. "And why are _you_ here? I thought I was never going to see you again." A pause. "And then I _really_ thought I was never going to see you again. But you're here. And you have people. And you're apparently some sort of special Jedi fighter."

Faith swiveled around on her stool to face the room, leaning her arms back on the bar. "Red thinks it's the slayer thing. Got dragged along. Big mistake, and all that."

"You got dragged along because of me?"

Faith took another drink, not meeting those green eyes. "I wasn't gonna blame you for it."

Buffy plunked her glass down, crossing her arms over her chest. "Wow, gee, thanks. That's a first. They teach you that in prison?"

Faith put her own glass down. "Wonderin' when you'd get back around to that."

"Well, it seems sort of a natural thing to given that, you know, it happened, and you were supposed to be all locked up—"

"Right, so you wouldn't have to see the one that got away."

Eyes blazing. "_Got _away? You _ran_ away! You tried to hurt everyone I loved!"

Faith exploded off of her chair. "And I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry! Is that what you want to hear?" Buffy was off her chair, too. The two slayers standing toe to toe. "I'm sorry I killed the Deputy Mayor and I'm sorry I tried to kill Angel and I'm sorry about grabbing Red and I'm sorry about stealing your body and I'm sorry I tried to kill you earlier today and drop you into the sarlacc pit to be fuckin' digested!"

It came out in one big long string, all at once. Somewhere in the background, the jazz stopped. The bar's inhabitants were looking. Everyone was looking. Buffy just stood there with her mouth open.

Faith sat back down. Her mouth felt dry. Now that she'd said it, she didn't want to have to talk about it. Not here. Not now. Everyone was still looking. She lowered her voice. "Right, so that was actually my back up pick-up line. You know, in case the first one didn't work."

Buffy's hands unfisted as she eased back again onto the chair. She couldn't help the one corner of her mouth that crept upwards, even as she stared at Faith. "Gee, I have no idea why you're single."

"Okay, Faith, I was finally able to—" And suddenly Lando was there, breaking Faith away from the other girl's eyes. Of course he would come then. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were here with…was it Buffy? I don't believe we've had the pleasure." But Buffy wasn't looking at that outstretched hand. The vial of eldratz was plainly visible in the other. Her eyes flickered between it and Faith.

It just sat there between them. Lando was still talking but no one was listening. Faith took the vial from his hand and it disappeared into her own as she cut him off.

"Got what I need now, thanks."

"Faith, are you sure—?"

"If I want your advice, I'll ask for it." She could see the man opening his mouth again because he just didn't take a hint. "Look, we'll have plenty of time to braid each other's hair on the ride out tomorrow morning and you'll have plenty of time to see me lose my cookies in space and everything, so maybe you could just make yourself scarce for the time being." It wasn't a question, and Lando was not a dumb man. With a bow, he was gone.

Faith's eyes flicked back over to see the blonde slayer's eyes still on her closed hand.

The other girl spoke first. "How did you….even Jabba had trouble finding…and you didn't even know I was going to…." It dawned on her. "You got it for yourself."

Faith stared into her drink. Who knew what would come out of the Chosen One's mouth next? How it was dangerous? How it was cheating? How the heroes didn't do stuff like that? And how hard did she think things were for her anyway, by comparison? She was gonna sit there until she heard it and then she'd be out the door.

But Buffy didn't say any of that.

Instead: "Can I?" Catching Faith's sharp look. "You know, with you?"

Faith had already gotten to her feet, but now she sat down again, looking at the vial in her hand. How much Buffy must want it! That had been the pattern after all…get her hopped up on the other and then make her manageable with this. "Um…sure." She should have been getting it for Buffy all along. "You know what, why don't you just take it?"

She could see the blonde wanted to. She didn't even trust herself to say no. She just shook her head instead, holding onto Faith's extended hand and what it offered.

So Faith kept talking, ignoring the cool fingers against her own. "No, really. It's fine…take it." Between the two of them, they managed to drop the vial on the bar.

Buffy's hand instantly closed over it, saying, at the same time: "It's too much. I should be weaning off of it. There should be weaning."

"Ain't in charge of that one." Faith kept her hands wrapped around her drink now.

"Maybe we could…together?"

Faith didn't say anything.

"But not here."

Faith looked around. The blonde probably had a point. Not the most savory crowd to be off your game in. Not that Faith had such a great track record with that herself with Buffy. She was pretty sure Willow wouldn't have approved.

"Right. Not here. Someplace quieter."

"Someplace nicer."

"I'll see what I can do." Faith was already off her seat and towards the door, looking back to make sure Buffy was following.

* * *

It was Leia that found them the next morning, on the roof of their little collection of buildings under the rising suns and the fading starlight. Faith's eyes blinked open first to see those stars. No matter where you were, there were always more of them, glittering. The moonlight the night before had been stunning.

She felt a stirring against her thigh. She looked down to find Buffy's back pressed up against it. A few strands of blonde hair threaded through her fingers.

She was sitting up, leaning back against a chimney. Buffy was curled in peaceful sleep next to her. All their clothes still in place. Leia just looked at the both of them, mouth open, unsure what to say.

From down below, Faith could hear others begin to stir. Her other hand—the one not connecting her to Buffy—felt the vial still in her palm and closed around it. Half of its liquid sloshing silently inside. The half Buffy'd left for her to take.

She slipped the vial into her pocket and, extracting herself, stood.

Leia finally found her voice. "Maybe I should just—"

"Take her down in a minute. I'll be there."

Before the Princess could respond, Faith had already walked to the edge of the roof and leapt to the next and then the next and then down to the ground to come back by a different route.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Egads! Sorry for the delay! Time got away from me and there was this vertical learning curve at work and the lack of a desk chair (this neck crick's for you). But I'm hard at work on the next, so it hopefully won't take as long! Enjoy

* * *

"Yoda would say you're making this easy for me." Luke stepped to one side and watched Dawn's lightsaber part the air next to him.

"No, Yoda would say 'making it easy for him you are' and, instead of sparring, we'd be…." She tried to surprise him on the backswing, cutting up, when her momentum had been going down.

Luke parried the slice, caught her around the waist with one arm and spun her away. "We'd be…?"

Dawn whirled herself back around, bringing her lightsaber up at the ready again. "We'd be standing on one hand or something."

Luke had to half-laugh at that one. On one hand in the mud, with the Jedi Master perched atop. He'd done that. Dawn had done that. They'd fallen in the mud together. Over and over. It hadn't been as fun as it sounds. "Yoda may be a Jedi Master, but he also lives by himself in a swamp." He brushed aside a telegraphed strike., looking past her out the window to the stars whizzing past as they got further and further from Tatooine. "In the real world, Jedis have to fight." Dawn swung again at him. He blocked and allowed her angry momentum to take her past him, bringing his blade after her, just shy of her stomach as she turned back to face him. "And they have to be focused." Both of them looked down at the lightsaber that could have easily killed her if Luke had been someone else.

"I _am_ focused!" She knocked his blade away and stepped back out of reach. "I'm focused on the fact that if Willow was on this ship we'd be fighting!"

"A Jedi doesn't fight out of anger."

"Okay, _now_ you sound like Yoda." She tried another series of blows, moving close to tangle their crackling blades. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll fight Willow the next time she does something nice for my sister, too." She pushed her lightsaber into his and forced him back a step. "See? That's even-handed of me."

"Dawn, I don't think Willow chose to ride in the Falcon just to listen to Threepio's encyclopedic recounting of Jedi history. She knows you're upset."

"Oh, you don't know Willow…she might just be in it for the encyclopedic stuff. She might just be over there all la-la, informational goodness!" She closed the distance again with her lightsaber, the strikes coming faster now.

"Well, then, I'm sure that, when you slapped her, you got the point across." The blizzard attack pushed him back until he nearly bumped into Faith, who was doing her own exercises with the remote, blaster shield down over her eyes. She sidestepped his retreating form and still managed to block her shots. She didn't even have to look.

"Least Dawn didn't cut her in half."

Two heads swiveled to look at her, Luke frowning.

"Faith, you're not helping."

Faith opened her mouth to say no one had asked her to help, but Dawn beat her to it.

"No, she _is _helping. I _could_ have cut Will in half. And that would've been a mess. So instead I opted for dignified slapping."

"Yes, I'm sure Yoda would've given you a prize for your restraint."

"Well, he never had to deal with inappropriate groping!"

Faith kept her focus on the remote still firing at her. "I hadn't even met this Yoda, but I'm pretty sure she's got you there, Luke."

Luke sighed, flicking his lightsaber off. "Has it ever occurred to either of you that the two of them might have feelings for each other?"

"That's not the point!" It was Dawn snapping back. "The point is that my sister is sitting up there in the cockpit and has hardly said two words since this morning! The point is that she's been through three years of hell!"

Faith kept her thoughts to herself. Willow was Buffy's best friend, or at least had been. Certainly closer than she and Buffy had been. So, who knows? More of a foundation there, maybe, if Buffy was looking. For all she knew, it wasn't far from braiding each other's hair and late-night Scooby sessions and all that stuff people did with their friends to something more.

Didn't mean she didn't want to grit her teeth at the sight of the redhead's hands on Buffy, though.

Didn't mean she wouldn't crack a half-smile at the fact that she was the one Buffy'd come to find afterwards.

And none of this meant the remote had taken time off for its own thoughts. A shot caught Faith in the stomach and she twisted to the side, yelping at the sting.

Two heads swiveled again.

"Sneaky little bastard." Faith mumbled it, waving generally at the remote, still hissing from one spot to the next, looking for an opening.

Dawn started again. "The point is that's not what Buffy needs right now."

"What do I need?"

Now they were all turning. Luke and Dawn from their conversation, Faith from her sparring, pulling the blast shield from her head, dark locks tumbling free.

"Buffy!" Dawn shut off her weapon and rushed over to the girl leaning against one side of the open doorway.

"I need myself?"

"No, I just…I'm happy to see you. Here. With people. Us people."

Faith could see the strain pulling again around the older slayer's eyes. It had melted away last night under the moons…just a little eldratz for Buffy and they hadn't even fought. Just took Buffy being drugged and Faith managing to keep her mouth shut. The generous quantity of alcohol had helped with the latter. Enough to get past that stage where you say anything and into the one where there's hardly a roof under you. Faith had just laid there, barely feeling Buffy sink down into something resembling peace next to her, but feeling it nonetheless. Feeling mostly that. And the vial in her hand that she knew she wasn't going to drink. That was last night.

Green eyes met Faith's and then skittered away. "Yep. That's me. People person."

Dawn smiled brightly. "And that's precisely what you need: people."

"People." Buffy rolled the word around in her mouth, trying it out. Her concentration made a little divet between her brows. Faith wondered what the withdrawal was like. There was still the red collar of burn around her neck. Still the faint purple webbing under her skin. Too much of a lot of things.

"Buffy? Are you okay?" Dawn saw it, too.

"Yeah." She tried at a smile. "Yeah, I just…is Willow…?" Looking around.

Dawn's own hopeful smile faded, arms crossed across her chest. "No. She took her molest-y self over to the Falcon. Which works out well for everyone involved." But then she remembered what Luke had said. Arms dropping to her side, finger picking at the metal ribbing on the handle of her lightsaber. "Unless maybe she's the one you wished was here?"

A quick shake of the head. "No. No, it's good you're here, Dawn." Faith watched Buffy reach a hand out and smooth Dawn's hair back from her face. "You're here." As if that was one of a number of things she didn't quite understand. Or know how to feel about. Green eyes flicked again to Faith for a moment before they were back on Dawn. "It's just…I don't know…Will had this touch—" Seeing the smirk Faith couldn't keep from her face and frowning. "Not like that! Her hand on my head. It's like it made it easier. Coming off of the tempest. Everything got quieter and—"

Faith watched her from across the room. She felt the half-full vial in her pant pocket. That was another way to make things quieter. If Buffy knew she had it….

Dawn rushed to offer her own relief. "Well, then, we'll just find some intergalactic aspirin or something. They gave Luke a new hand, so don't tell me they can't—"

But Buffy was still going. "—and then she was there, and I didn't think I'd ever see anyone I knew again…."

"And therefore groping?"

Buffy's fingers pinched at the bridge of her nose. "I don't know, Dawn. I don't know. She didn't mean any harm."

"But—"

Luke's real hand on Dawn's shoulder and the subtle smoothing of the Force stopped her. "I think your sister's right. Willow's heart was in the right place. Jedis heal. And, like it or not, Buffy's going to need her." Seeing the blonde's eyebrow. "If she and Dawn were sent here to bring you back like they say, you must need her to get home."

"Home?" Another unfamiliar word. Buffy was standing here, still dressed like a gladiator, a slave, on a ship hurtling through one part of black space to another. "A portal back? But Glory had the ritual and…."

"And I think I just figured out why they sent me." Dawn's eyes were wide. Older.

Luke and Faith's blank looks.

"The portal takes my blood." By way of explanation.

"Or mine." Buffy shrugged as the looks now turned to her. "Long story. Death was my gift to Dawn or the world or whoever one gives those sorts of all-occasion gifts to." Glancing out at the stars beyond the window. "Guess it sort of turned out not so death-y." Half-smile. "Maybe jumping into portals is my gift."

Faith's head swiveled from one Summers to the other. "Okay, either I'm missing something or the Powers are getting a little redundant. If both of you have the right blood and they wanted to send you back, B, why'd they need Dawn?"

Buffy could only shrug, letting her sister say the obvious. "Well, let me just pull out that helpful explanatory pamphlet the Powers provided." The younger Summers pantomimed its non-existence. "Oh, wait…"

"Maybe you're not supposed to go back."

Everyone turned to stare at Luke.

"What? The portal brought her here." Turning to Buffy. "You could stay. Become a hero for this world. The Rebellion could use someone like you."

"And to think I left my cape on Tatooine."

Faith blinked. This was Buffy. Capes and tights and superwoman and saving the world. She didn't leave that cape anywhere. It was practically stapled to her. A glance at Dawn's face revealed that she was thinking the same thing.

Luke's face, however, just looked confused. "I could ask Leia if we could get you another cape?"

Faith clapped a hand on Luke's shoulder, turning to Buffy with the road less serious. "Think you're gonna have to change up your witty retorts if you're stayin' here, B. Mix in some Jabba jokes or somethin'."

Dawn scowled over at the younger slayer. "She's not staying here, Faith. I mean, maybe you don't have anything to go back for, but Buffy has Giles and Xander and Tara and—" She ran up against the wall of her mom.

It didn't have to hit Buffy; she was already there. She'd jumped in a portal there. Faith could see it. Could see the tremor in Buffy's fingertips. The deeper shadows around those green eyes. The wild blonde mane framing everything. "'Course B's got people there, Dawn. She's got you here, too. And Red, I guess." Because it might be true. "She's got lotsa places to go. But until you guys figure out the blood-drive portal shit, B's here and she might as well get to play with the fun toys." She brought her lightsaber to life and saw the answering flicker in the other slayer's eyes. The remote started hissing from place to place again in the air in front of her.

"Faith, being a Jedi isn't just about weapons. It's a way of being, protecting the weak, defending life and calm and peace—"

"With weapons." The slayer blocked a series of shots, trying to keep the smirk from her face at how much Dawn looked like the Buffy she knew with her arms crossed all stern and righteous.

Luke sighed. "Yoda said it would be harder for you."

Faith snapped around at that. "Oh, so, what? Now I've got some dude I haven't even met putting me in remedial Jedi?"

Luke held up his hands. "Maybe if you just went to train with him."

"Gee, B, seems like you can have your Giles here, too." She jerked her lightsaber up just in time to meet another volley, eyes flashing.

"Faith, working with the remotes is just an exercise in anticipation. Understanding the Force is more than that. It's understanding how it flows through you, guides you…."

"Sure glad all that training's been guidin' Red." Twisting around to deflect another blast.

"…how emotions must be brought under control for there to be balance."

"Right." A quick sequence of blocks. She could feel her slayer and the Force and the build-up of energy. Everything was coming fast. The remote was giving her more and more. "Like you'll be meditating about balance next time you see Vader! Like you won't be thinking about how you dad cut off your hand and tortured your friends!"

"My father was twisted by the Dark Side!" He was yelling in spite of himself. "I won't be like him!"

Just barely catching the shots as they came. "Yeah, well, better watch it there, emotion boy!"

"I'm in control!"

Even as he said it, Faith stretched to meet the shots coming at her, from different sides, so quickly. She could see the fifth and sixth shots she wasn't quite going to catch. Could see there was going to be a sting when they hit. Then could see Buffy reaching for Dawn's lightsaber, flicking it on, and stepping in between to block the shots in a blur before they could get to Faith. Another moment and the blonde slayer had her lightsaber tumbling end-over-end towards the remote until that exercise in anticipation fell down in two pieces.

Everyone stared at the halves of it, rolling from side to side on the floor.

Buffy handed the lightsaber, still humming, back to Dawn. "Toys are officially more fun." And then she was gone back to the empty cockpit and the stars.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Tried to be quicker with this one! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

The two ships touched down together in the cargo bay of the cruiser, the scruffy chaos of the Rebel Alliance apparent in the scattering of other fighter pilots in the bay, the hodgepodge of short-range ships.

After the destruction of the base on Hoth, the Rebellion drifted here. Readily moveable, defendable.

A small contingent assembled as the Falcon's ramp lowered.

"Ah, Princess Leia!"

The Princess was there to greet the uniformed creature that stepped forward. Han some steps behind her. On the other side from the other ship, Dawn and Luke were the first to make their way down.

"His head looks like a fish." The whisper bounced off the hard surfaces. The younger Summers stepped off the ramp into the bay's bright fluorescence.

"Shh!" Luke stood next to her, eyes wandering to the other small fighter planes and the bustling around them.

"I'm just saying." Turning around for confirmation from the two slayers in the shadows behind her. But Buffy's eyes were taking in everything. And Faith's were darting between the blonde and the other ramp where Willow stood, shifting from foot to foot.

In between them, some fifty feet of scuffed floor, greetings.

"Princess Leia, it is good to see you have returned to us!"

"Admiral Ackbar." Nodding.

"And when we are so in need."

Faith saw Leia's eyebrow raise. "But what happened on Cloud City was just Vader after Luke." At the mention of his name and Vader's, Luke's head swiveled back to the conversation at hand, catching the glance of Leia's apology. None of them wanted to remember that. "And we have Luke with us now, so that's not a threat to—"

"I'm afraid, your highness, that there are rumors of a second Death Star."

One Death Star, two Death Stars. When did the bad guys not try again? Faith watched Willow make her way down the ramp and slowly over.

"A second? But how have they had the time? And where?"

"Information we are attempting to learn, your highness. Several contingents of Bothian spies have sought the plans and failed. Now that you've returned, we shall schedule a briefing tonight to see if together we can find another way."

Willow was nearly to them. Faith was pretty sure that, if it had been her, she would have just pretended nothing had happened. And equally sure Willow couldn't do that—the blush was already creeping up her neck. She wouldn't do it, either—over-talking was something they did.

"Buffy, I—"

Dawn was right there with her lightsaber. "You what? You want to see if she's out of it enough to try another move?"

"Dawn!" Luke pushed wrist and blade down. "What are you doing? Willow's not a threat."

"Wanna bet?"

"Dawnie, I didn't mean—" The redhead had her hands up. That universal symbol of the unarmed. Faith's slayer was still on edge. Faith, for that matter, was still on edge. Willow tried the other Summers now. The one who hadn't said anything yet. "Not that I didn't mean it, Buffy, in the sense of you being repulsive so that it must've been one of those involuntary responses like breathing or having a heartbeat. Just that I didn't mean it like that, if you didn't want me to mean it like that…" Faith's eyebrow shot skyward. "…because I should've asked about that first. They always say to talk about that because talking is important, unless you talk too much."

"You talk too much." Faith went for the obvious.

Willow's eyes flicked over to her, hurt with a touch of fire in the depths of that green. "Not that _you_ want to talk at all." This was an easier conversation. Willow could have righteous indignation here. "Oh no, just use them and move on. _Some_ of us think there might be some talking."

"Some of us think these lips aren't made for talkin', 'specially when there's not much to talk about." Faith went there and saw the other girl's hurt come front and center before Willow managed to push it behind a set jaw and fired back.

"Maybe there wasn't! Maybe it wasn't worth talking about for me either! What do you think of that?"

"Yeah, well, you're the one still talkin' 'bout it, Red. Lotta things people say about me, but it ain't that there's nothin' to talk about. And I seem to remember you askin' me to—"

"Okay, less talking, less talking!" Dawn had her hands pressed over her ears.

Buffy's green eyes darted from Faith to Willow and back again. "I still don't understand why the two of you…."

"Hope you're not castin' aspersions on my sexiness, B." Faith gave the other slayer a wink.

Buffy's brow knitted with the sudden twists in Faith's tone, green eyes now firmly fixed on Faith, who was still wearing her leather. "I wasn't casting any aspirations about any—"

"Hang on…I thought we were talking about Buffy here." Dawn's brow mirrored her sister's.

"Commander Summers?"

The title cut in between them. Two heads turned, but the young ensign was looking at Faith, not Buffy.

"Commander Summers, Admiral Ackbar has scheduled a briefing and requested that you and Commander Skywalker," A nod at Luke, "attend. The rest of you will be shown to your quarters for the night. "

"Commander?" Buffy's eyes asked the question, too.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Faith stole your name."

The younger slayer shrugged. "Kind of a thing. Didn't know it'd stick."

"Commander Summers?" The ensign was waiting.

"Right."

* * *

"I forgive you."

"This has to be a dream." Faith wanted to look around, but there was hardly time. The butt-end of a staff headed straight for her head.

"I forgive you for leaving me in the dirt, for letting the sand people take me, for letting them sell me to the Hutts, to Jabba, for all those fights in the pit." Each phrase and accusation punctuating another strike with that weapon.

"Soundin' less and less like forgiveness every day." They were in that old Sunnydale high school library. At each other with quarter staffs. Back and forth across that familiar terrain.

"Yeah, well, why _should_ I forgive you?"

"Beats me. You're the one brought it up." Faith could see the sheen of sweat on the other slayer's forehead. Her own was trickling down in between her shoulder blades, bare aside from the sports bra. Workout clothes, both of them. Neither of them were stopping.

"You were supposed to come for me!"

"Usually reserve that for the second date, B."

"God!" A hacking slice that slid down Faith's staff and skinned across her knuckles. "Why do you always have to be such a pervert?!"

"Says the girl that usually makes it so these dreams happen across a bed." Faith caught Buffy behind the knee, buckling it so that the blonde dropped to the ground in front of her. "'Course now we got weapons and a public place. Think you're uppin' the kink, B." She followed, one knee hitting the ground on either side of that slim torso. Both of their eyes were glittering under the library's low lights. There was no one else there. The library unmoored from everything that should have been connected to it.

"Is that all you think about? Sex and violence?"

"You're a slayer. You tell me."

The library that should have been a pile of rubble. Blown up. In a flash, Buffy had flipped her, landing on top for a few breaths, then pushing away and off, twirling her staff again. She could feel air rush into the space.

"Faith, we're human." No blow yet. The staff loosely in the blonde's fingers.

"Keep tellin' yourself that." Faith struck first, not being one for waiting. On her feet now. Her shot hit home.

"But we're supposed to be…." Rubbing at the spot on her breastbone where Faith's blow had landed. Staff up defensively while she gathered her breath. "…we're just girls, Faith. We feel just like anyone else."

"Been told I feel better."

Buffy blocked Faith's sweeping slice. Wood knocking wood. "I probably walked into that one. " She parried with her own sequence, a blur of unforgiving staff coming straight at Faith. "But don't you wish you were normal? Like you weren't the sort that had to deal with hell gods and brain-sucking and portals?"

"You're the one that walked into one." Faith could feel her breath in and out of her lungs, faster now. Fighting a slayer was different. It was natural. It was hard. "Heaven ain't what you thought it would be."

"This isn't heaven." The play of muscles under skin. She was backing her way across the floor, teeth pulling slightly at her lip, not realizing what they were doing. "I thought…my mom…."

This was the moment of vulnerability. When Faith should press her advantage. Weapon in her hands. Too long since she'd used a staff like this. Too rusty. How hard was it to hit this girl? "Heaven and hell are the same place."

That got her a look.

"Okay, you're right, this is a dream. That was way too cryptic for real life."

"I'll be here all night, folks." Faith took a couple of swings, driving Buffy back further, towards that library cage.

"Isn't that line supposed to be for jokes?"

"Maybe. True, though."

"That we'll be here fighting all night?" Buffy was in that small space now.

"If that's what you want."

That small space with more weapons. The blonde slayer reached behind her, dropping the staff and grabbing a long sword in one smooth move. She swung the blade back around and Faith had to duck under it and to the side until she was in the cage, too. "What else would I want?" A blur and Faith was pinned against the back wall, blade at her throat. Buffy always had been smarter about these kinds of things…luring the other slayer in.

Faith kept her eyes on Buffy, not the blade. They were close. "Got me. You're the one dragged me on a leash across a galaxy." The excitement of the fight glittered in both of their eyes.

"I don't know why you followed me."

"Don't know either."

"I shouldn't want you here."

"Not if history's any guide." Faith could feel the other girl's heat. No space between them now. "'Course you still got that sword. Hedging your bets, B?"

"You never know."

Faith spared a glance for the blade's edge. "Still gonna stand by my earlier kink statement."

Buffy's eyes fell to that as well, and in the process noticed the lack of space. Confusion in them. "Faith, why are we here?"

"You mean, in a library that shouldn't exist or in a cage?" In one swift motion, Faith had grabbed the hand that held the hilt of that sword, and took hand and sword and girl the measure of five feet or so until Buffy's back was against the wall of the cage on the other side, the library through the wire behind her.

"No…here."

"Just west of your portal to heaven, then?"

"This doesn't feel like hell…." Buffy's breaths coming more quickly. Eyes falling this time to lips.

Faith held her own breath and let the sword drop to the floor beside them. "Maybe 'cause it ain't."

"Just different…."

It was different and unexpected, as in Faith didn't know what to expect or think. She was pretty sure she was supposed to be breathing and that that was supposed to be involuntary or something. She really couldn't say if she was breathing or not because here was Buffy, inches—not even inches—between them, and they weren't about to kill each other and Buffy wasn't trying to leave and she wasn't trying to leave either, which made two of them there, as in both of them, and suddenly she was kissing Buffy, which took her lips by surprise and her eyes, which had never shut, but which, when the lips touched, had somehow stopped registering what they were seeing until it was important to do so, when they noticed that Buffy's eyes had closed and they were still kissing and then her own eyes closed because it was soft and good.

"Faith?"

Buffy's lips pulled away, and Faith ran a tongue quickly across her own, moving the hand from Buffy's waist back to twine in the wires of the cage behind Buffy, steeling herself for the "what do you think you're doing?" and "get away from me" she was sure were coming. She was already working on some sort of a retort. Something about what cages bring out in them.

"Faith, I…."

"Right. So…." The retort had less flair that she had imagined. She started to turn to go.

A hand caught her arm. "Faith, I don't really know—" Dark eyes meeting green. "—but I don't want you to leave. I want you here."

"You called and I came." Faith could feel each of the fingers on her. She stayed where she was.

"I know."

"Little bit late."

"I know." Buffy's fingers moved up to trace the line of Faith's jaw, eyes watching those fingers as if amazed by how they were moving on their own.

This was not "get away." Faith leaned harder on the hand that held the cage, leaned into Buffy. This was not "get away." And it might be the fight, the slayer thing in them, the crude H & H, but she didn't care. She dipped in again to find Buffy's mouth, willing, moving with hers. Pent up something between them until they were gasping for each other, Buffy's hands sliding down along her side, fluttering across ribs and back up, unsure of where to land. Faith's own, amazed, trailing down the side of Buffy's neck to the collar bone, down along shoulder and arm, back up from hip to rib to find the curve underneath her breast, to rest her hand there, thumb to forefinger matching that curve, until Buffy arched a little and Faith's thumb brushed across the nipple there. Tight. Take it between two fingers.

Buffy's hand had made it around to the small of her back. When had they moved so close? Practically one person. Faith wasn't sure what sensations were coming from her own fingertips and which came from Buffy touching her. As if the mere fact of the latter weren't enough to short circuit everything.

Her brain and her body on parallel tracks. Buffy's head tipping back…Faith's mouth finding its way down that stretch of skin, one hand still cupping breast, the other sliding down that taut stomach to the waistband. Somewhere her thigh had slipped between the other girl's legs. A gasp. Hands grabbing at Faith's ass to bring her closer, to bring that thigh up harder.

Not sure which of them was gasping now.

Probably both.

Buffy sucked in a breath, and Faith's hand slipped down into the opening that breathing in had created between stomach and waistband, finding first cotton, then pushing that aside until there was nothing keeping her and Faith had her fingers on Buffy. Wet. She felt herself tighten. Crying out, one of them, as the fingers brushed across that sensitive spot quickly, dipping down, then back, nudging it from underneath. Hips moving. Mouth that was kissing just managing now to breathe against Buffy's skin, feeling the hand come up to find her breast, yank aside the sports bra, saying the letter of the name she'd given Buffy a long time ago, which was the sum total of everything she could say. And everything feeling so good it hurt.

"God…Faith…."

Really hurt.

And something was wrong with Buffy's words. They didn't sound right. They should've sounded better. Faith's eyes blinked open and found the other girl looking down, so she looked down. Blue light in between them, touching Faith's stomach. Where it hurt.

"Faith, it's…."

But Faith's eyes had already registered that what was important was not the pain in her gut or Buffy's fingers unsure of what to do or the prospect of some new scar next to the old. What was important was the light going straight through Buffy, coming out of the middle of her to touch Faith. Faith was only getting the tip of it. Buffy was taking most of it.

"B?"

Faith wanted to grab her and was afraid to touch her. What if she made it worse? Buffy's face was starting to pale. Lip trembling.

"Oh, shit…B…."

Something she couldn't do anything about. All she could do was follow the lightsaber's blade through to the other side and find a metal hilt. Willow backing away from it, eyes wide.

"Buffy, I didn't mean—"

If Faith could've jumped right through the cage she would have. Let the wire cut through her…she'd put herself back together on the other side after she'd killed the witch. After she'd beaten her within an inch of her life and then went on and killed her. She could've done it.

But there was a hand on her arm. Buffy's voice a whisper. "Shh. It's okay."

"It's _so_ fuckin' not! She just—"

"I was always supposed to die." Fingers brushing away tears Faith hadn't realized she'd shed.

"Not with me here, you weren't!"


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: And another. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

* * *

"Holy fuck!"

Faith bolted upright in bed and nearly knocked her head against the low ceiling. She was wet from sweat. And--who was she kidding?--from the other stuff with Buffy, too. That skin, the feel of the other girl against her fingers, moving with them….

"Jesus." Wiping a hand across her face to clear all the unbelievable away. She was awake now. Millions of light years away. Soaking through her sheets. Give her another few minutes in dreamland and she would've been wet with the witch's blood, too, no matter what Buffy said.

And did people bleed when you cut them like that with a lightsaber? She touched her own stomach, but it still held just the one scar. It hurt. It was important to know whether there would be blood.

"Faith?"

A voice from the bunk below her. Military style for them. The Rebel Alliance wasn't fancy. Faith had a flashback to her jail cell, all metal and close quarters. Her fingers still itched to get around the hilt of that lightsaber and yank it out of Buffy and put it somewhere else.

"Faith? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Leia. Didn't mean to get you up." Faith leaned over to look to the bed under hers. Leia's hair was unpinned for the night, down over her shoulders like something out of the Renaissance. Dark shadows around her eyes. "'Less you were maybe already up?"

Leia rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "I haven't been sleeping well since Vader…." Neither of them needed to go there, but Leia couldn't stop herself. Whispering into the dark. "I can still feel him out there."

Stretching out through the Force, Faith could, too. And feel all the other tremors in the Force from the others closer to her, the more distracting things keeping her from really questioning why Leia could feel the same things. "Yeah."

The Princess pulled in a breath and swept her hair back away from her face, pinning it up. "He's not here. He doesn't know where Luke is." A few strands still dangled down. Her fingers picking at the sheets. "I wish I could kill him." The words hung there for a moment, and both women were thinking of Leia wielding the lightsaber against Jabba on Tatooine. Then Leia's fingers came up to pull those errant strands into line. "But he's Luke's father. Even if I could get close, how could I do that to Luke, no matter what he did?"

"Wished I coulda killed my own father. B pretty much did blow up only father I ever had." Faith shrugged as if it was nothing. Buffy was in the right after all. "It's a thing. It happens."

Leia stared. "She 'blew up' your—?" She shook her head. "Your world sounds so full of death. I don't see why you'd want to go back there, even if Willow could find a way."

Red.

Red and her didn't-mean-it, lightsaber sticking straight through Buffy's gut, hands on Buffy, kissing Buffy, and, earlier, standing in front of Faith naked. Faith should've killed her right then and there.

"Fuck Red."

Leia's eyebrow raised at the force there, shaking her head. "You and Dawn." A pause. "You were saying her name, you know. Before you woke up."

Faith nearly fell from her perch with the shaking of her head. "No way. Not Willow." Full name or abbreviated version…she wasn't saying it.

"No…I meant Buffy. It was something about her dying."

"Oh." More sense in that one. "She does that. It's how I got here." Faith was aware she wasn't making much sense to Leia, but her brain was spinning instead about the other girl. How her subconscious wasn't staying as sub as she might like. Had the dream been just a dream? A slayer dream? Hard to tell if she'd just made all that up in her mind. Of course, how fucked up would that be if she'd made it up? Either way, really, even if it hadn't been just imagined. Fucked up.

"I don't understand the two of you."

"Join the club."

"When I first see you with her, she's trying to kill you, and then you're on the roof together on Tatooine…but you say she hurt you in your world, too, that you hurt each other...." Leia reached up to touch Faith's arm. "Maybe you should get away. Come to Coruscant. You heard Admiral Ackbar. He thinks we can deal with Prince Xizor there and get the plans to the new Death Star—"

Faith jumped down from her bunk, landing lightly on her feet in front of Leia, still hopped up from the fight in her dream. "Wheelin' and dealin' sounds more in your line. And Han's. You're not going to need my muscle."

"You just said Han was coming. When doesn't he get into trouble? And Lando's coming, too."

"Lando?" Faith hadn't told Leia about Lando and Han gambling together on Tatooine. Better to stay out of things like that. And, even if he did get her the eldratz, that didn't mean she had to trust him. Maybe it was more reason not to. "Yeah, well, watch you don't get sold into slavery and end up buildin' the damn Death Star yourself."

The Princess sighed, dark eyes weighing the options like the tactician she was. "I know, I know. But he's dealt with Xizor before—"

"So Xizor's probably gonna wanna bash his face in."

Leia shared a half-smile with the pacing slayer. "So, you see, there could be some fighting for you."

It made sense. Get away from the past that kept trying to follow her, wherever she went. Between Leia and Han and Lando, somebody _was_ bound to get in trouble. It _could_ be fun. And at least she'd be off this floating tin can and doing something.

"Yeah…maybe. I'll let you know." And, with that, she was out the door to find someplace to run and think.

* * *

She was pretty sure there had to be a gym here somewhere. A few weight machines she could throw herself under. A hamster wheel. Anything. But she couldn't find it. So she just ran through the halls. The night's skeleton crew stared. At some point she was gonna have to ask someone how to get back to her room. But not yet.

Going back through the dream in her mind, it seemed more and more unbelievable. Buffy forgiving her.

Wait, was she forgiving her? Faith couldn't remember how that'd all turned out. It hadn't been so clear-cut. Buffy had said she didn't want Faith to leave. What did words mean?

Not that she could tell what actions meant either.

Buffy'd played along with Faith's innuendo, but, then, she could always do that. Always do that and scamper right back to her Big Love of the moment. Had she made up that Buffy was kissing her back? Had she made up that those eyes were closed when she was so near? She could still feel the hand pulling her closer, like a phantom against her back, jamming her thigh up against…god.

"Commander Summers?"

Faith's eyes blinked open, registering the concerned-looking crewman next to her, finding that somewhere along the line she'd stopped running and had leaned back against the corridor's hard metal wall, jamming the heels of her hands into her eye sockets.

"Right." Pulling herself off the wall. "Fine. I'm fine."

He went on his way, sparing one look over his shoulder. She kept going, bursting from the corridor into the docking bay's space and taking a deep breath as she jogged between the parked fighter planes.

In any waking world, Buffy shouldn't want her.

Hell, she ought to be pretty ambivalent about it herself. Not like the slayer hadn't stuck a knife in her and left her to fend for herself.

Faith pulled up short. She wasn't sure which thoughts had conjured up the blonde—the bad ones, the sexy ones, the worse ones—but there she was, unmistakable as could be, next to the Falcon. Talking to Lando. Getting something from Lando and then walking quickly away.

Faith intercepted her one row of planes over. Standing there as Buffy approached like she'd always been standing in the shadow of that fighter plane.

"You and Lando makin' friends?"

"Wha—?" Buffy whirled, having been lost in her own thoughts. She jammed her hand and its contents in the pocket of her pants. Someone had found her new clothes. Something like the Jedi she'd no doubt turn out to be. Dark cotton pants shoved into boots. A lighter, cream-colored tunic belted around that slim waist. Her hair tumbled down in waves over her shoulders.

"Late night meetings in the docking bay. Never knew you were a sneaker, B."

"I'm not a sneaker! You're the one sneaking up on me! I was just—" Faith could see Buffy debating what lie to tell and then decide to set her jaw and not tell one at all. "Just picking up something from _your _friend. And it's not like _you_ have any room to talk." Eyes daring Faith to say something.

Faith opened her mouth to say she hadn't actually taken the eldratz, but, then, Buffy didn't know that, so she shut her mouth again. And it's not like Faith could say she hadn't gone to Lando looking for it for herself. She should've known the smuggler would've gotten more. Where there were orders for some, you could've bet he'd be your friend if you needed more. "You pick your poison, B." Shrugging. Not that she wouldn't have words with Lando later. Fucking taking advantage, that's what he was doing.

"But it's not…." The blonde trailed off. Faith could tell she hadn't slept. There was a tremor in her fingers. With the new clothes, you couldn't see the still-fading webs of purple, but Faith was sure they were still there. Three years didn't go away that quickly, even for a slayer. "Whatever." Deciding that, if Faith was the only one to see, it was okay, Buffy let her fingers slip into her pocket and pull the vial out. She drank from it. Just a little. She kept the vial against her lips, thought a moment about drinking more, and then screwed the top back on, sighing with the effects of even that small amount.

Faith watched. "Whaddya have to give in return?" She had bought her drug with bald threats, but she couldn't see Buffy starting there, whatever remnants of tempest might still be running through her.

"Do you always have to go there?"

Faith's eyes widened, not even realizing she had been. Going there, that is. The implication of Buffy as a whore was almost ludicrous. But she could see those fiery green eyes thought she'd meant just that. And it was so similar to their bantering in the dream, Faith almost choked on her voice. Coughing to cover it. "You got there all by yourself. I just know the man ain't a giver."

Buffy's scowl eased a little as she shrugged, looking away across the quiet docking bay. "He said he was having a little problem with the Empire at his mining city in the clouds, or something. I didn't quite get it. Like maybe I could encourage them to leave." Glancing back at Faith. "And it's not like the Empire isn't the bad guy here. That's what we do. We fight the bad guys."

"So you just made the fight work for you, huh?" Faith tiptoed around the mercenary implications. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach she knew that was her line, not Buffy's. But Buffy didn't look like she cared. The eldratz was smoothing out the tension in her jaw.

"Right. It'll be good to fight the right things." Looking into Faith's eyes. "And it's not like you aren't itching for a fight either. Unless you always roam around starships at night all creepy like."

"Just thinkin'."

A long pause between them.

Then, Buffy, standing next to Faith in the plane's shadow: "What are we going to do about Will?"

Faith fought to keep her face blank, like of course she'd known that Buffy had been there in the dream. "Oh, so that's the part we're gonna talk about?" She felt the bile rising in her throat at the image of the redhead at the other end of the lightsaber piercing Buffy. At Buffy's lips going pale. She had been kissing those lips. Everything was getting mixed up in her head.

"Yes, this is what we're talking about." Firm. Then: "Do you know what it means?"

Faith put her fist against the metal of the ship and twisted. "I ain't Giles. Gonna go out on a limb and say not good, though."

The furrow between Buffy's brow was still there. There hadn't been enough eldratz to make that go away. And Faith was pretty sure this conversation was sucking away whatever high Buffy had hoped for. Buffy's voice was still quiet. "Do you think something happens when she tries to send me back? I mean, that makes more sense than the literal…."

"What, you don't think she skewers ya?" Faith felt like her vision was narrowing to a tunnel, flickering between this world and the dream. She would've killed Willow. She still would.

Buffy winced. "Will wouldn't do that."

"Right, 'cause she's just been the paragon of good behavior." Faith bit the words out, pacing again. She needed to be running. "Maybe she was just walking with her lightsaber all casual like and tripped and—whoops!— Slayer-kebob."

"Faith." Sighing. "Sometimes these things don't turn out like you think they will." Another sigh. That high was definitely not lasting as long as she'd hoped. "In fact, these prophecy things pretty much suck at helping you predict anything. Which sort of seems to defeat the purpose of having a prophecy of doom in the first place."

"Oh, goody…maybe it'll be worse."

"God, you act like she's going to go after you!"

"Well, excuse me if I haven't had to put up with her mouth always diggin' up the past ever since I ran into her in this world."

"From what I heard, you did just fine with her mouth." Buffy went there, realized it, and decided she might as well stick with it.

Faith stopped pacing, whirling to look at the other girl. "So, I fucked her. Pretty sure she doesn't think we're engaged." That bile was still sitting in her throat. Keyed up. "It just happened."

"Like maybe you were walking towards her and tripped and—"

"Cute. And now I think we're talking about that other part of the dream. Think maybe you're jealous, B." Both of them realized how close they were standing. "Like maybe you wished you'd gotten a chance to finish what you started." Faith pushed it even closer. Watching pupils dilate.

"Me? I didn't start anything…." The older slayer's breathing was shallow. The eldratz she'd taken hadn't been enough to calm everything running through her. Not enough for a slayer. Not enough under these circumstances. "You were with the starting."

"And you were with the keep going." Right in front of Buffy, pressing until the blonde's back hit the metal of the fighter plane and Faith was right there, hips pressed against hips, Faith's hands on either side of Buffy's head, feeling the metal that was cool, meaning her hands were hot. Feeling the blonde's hand come up to touch her side. Hearing the slight moan. A half smile as Faith congratulated herself for dragging it out of Buffy, because, even though she couldn't imagine it real, she could imagine it tawdry and gritty and full of all that slayer energy. She could imagine _that_ between them, so that's what she saw.

"Faith…." Hoarse.

And here was where Faith could imagine every white-bread, heterosexual, suburban middle-class brake being applied. She backed away, hands in the air. An exaggerated no harm, no foul.

"Faith?" With that backing away, Buffy's hand fell away, unsure of itself. It dangled at her side.

"What? I ain't about to get accused of takin' advantage."

"Taking…?" That furrow between Buffy's eyebrows. "Isn't anybody going to ask me what I want?"

"Fine. Whaddya want?" Faith had her arms crossed, waiting.

"I—" Buffy stopped, having not thought out the rest of the sentence. "I don't know."

Letting go of a breath. This was easier. "See? This is why people don't ask ya." Faith could really use a cigarette. Without one, she left her arms crossed. Then, realizing vaguely that this was a patented Buffy move, she shoved her hands into her pockets. "And we were talking about Red." They hadn't been.

A pause. Then Buffy went along with it. "She wants to go back to this Yoda. She told me she needed to know more about the Force so she could use it to send me back."

"The road to hell…."

"It's what she says she was sent here to do." Frowning. "At least somebody has a mission."

"Yeah, sure glad she got a rip-roarin' head start on that mission, too, what with the three years of hanging out with the Rebellion and then the learnin' how to push people around with the Force first." Seeing Buffy's eyebrow, Faith explained: "On Cloud City, after you snaked Han, we were tryin' to save Luke from Vader and Red got a little overinclusive, nearly sendin' me and the man in black over the edge. Glad she made sure to learn that skill first."

"Maybe you have to learn how to use the Force that way first…."

"Before she learns to use it in some other way that ends up killin' ya. They shoulda sent Giles, if you ask me."

"Giles." Buffy's eyes registering that loss. The hand that had been dangling at her side reached quickly under her tunic for that vial again. She took another swig, eyeballing the container to see how much was left before she put it away. She leaned back against the plane, eyes daring Faith to say something. Faith said nothing. The older slayer closed her eyes. "Maybe this Yoda's like Giles."

Faith stopped pacing. "Thought you weren't interested in finding out. Thought you just wanted the fun."

Buffy's eyes stayed closed as she shrugged. "We are slayers, ergo we are watched. Couldn't be any worse than the Council, could it?" The frown had melted back into her face, those features smoothing out. "And Will's going to be there, so we probably should be, too."

We? Faith was pretty sure Buffy'd just put them both in the same boat. Training-slash-babysitting-Red. Of course Buffy would assume there must be training. Even still, not like she was about to let Buffy and Willow go off to this training without her. Not after the dream. Leia would understand. And she probably needed to go become a full-fledged Jedi anyway. She'd be more useful to the Rebellion that way. A Jedi was what Luke and Leia needed.

"Faith?"

The younger slayer snapped from her thoughts to the blonde in front of her. "Yeah, training. Why the hell not?"

But the blonde wasn't really listening anymore. "Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you take me to my room?"

And Faith could see the drug had been enough this time. That smooth skin. The lips slightly parted. Like the rooftop. What Buffy looked like when she slept. When she wasn't on guard. Of course, she'd been on the eldratz then, too. For all she knew, this is what "living death" looked like.

"Yeah, whatever." Faith felt the blonde's arm link through hers, the slow movements. Buffy was asking her now to go, but, if Faith didn't help her, she'd just stay right here. "On my way, anyway."

Faith wasn't sure if it was or if it wasn't, but it sounded good.

* * *

"Leave again before you are ready, you will."

"We won't. Not this time."

"You leave for your friends. Think it is you they need."

"But, Master Yoda, that was before. And they _were_ in trouble. Han in Cloud City and—" Luke found himself leaning over to the Jedi master, the natural reaction when talking to someone so deceptively small. He forced himself to straighten up. Dawn, Buffy, Faith, and Willow were all behind him, coming down off the ship into Dagobah's damp air.

"Able to save him, you were?"

"Well, not then, but later." He didn't look at Buffy, but she frowned to herself anyway. Luke was thinking more about the other part of that time in Cloud City. "And there was Vader—my father—that you and Ben didn't tell me about."

"Told you, we did, that you were not ready. Not yet a Jedi."

"But the training…."

"Now, wait a minute." Faith stepped up between them. "So we could go through all this shit and still not be Jedis? I got Force and I got a lightsaber, which I'm pretty handy with, if I do say—"

"And I got all dressed up and everything." Buffy already looked the part, in clothing similar to what everyone else was already wearing. Everyone but Faith, who'd clung to her leather.

"Promised you Jedi, did they?" The little green figure turned to look at Dawn and Willow and Luke in turn.

Faith sniffed. "Well, they didn't get me out here with a promise of swamp."

Dawn cracked a grin. "At least Luke didn't dump us in it like he did the first time he tried to land."

Buffy was still staring at Yoda. "It's like Giles got muppet-ized."

Dawn shook her head. "Wait till you get to know him. Sorta more Oscar the Grouch."

"Was Oscar a muppet?" Now Willow.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Please tell me there's at least sparring soon."

"Not here for that either, you aren't." The Jedi Master cocked his head up at her.

"You don't know why I'm—" Faith got halfway through the retort before realizing Yoda wasn't listening. Was in fact tottering away through the swamp towards a small group of huts in the distance.

"Food now. Meditation later. For focus." The words drifted back to them. Luke, Willow, and Dawn were already making their way after him, familiar enough with this turn of events.

Faith was left to turn to the other slayer standing next to her. "Why did I let you talk me into this?"


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Tried to make this one longer, since I made y'all wait! Enjoy!

* * *

Luke, cross-legged on the mossy ground, eyes closed, hand out towards R2-D2, who was hovering some inches off the forest floor.

Dawn, next to him, face scrunched into a frown, three rocks hanging in space in front of her. A mobile without strings.

Willow, in the air herself, red hair dropping down into her face, feeling the Force under her, coming up from the ground to make a new ground for her to rest on, like the Force could be anything, anywhere, if you could just figure out how to shape it. Blowing the pesky strands from her face, trying to lose and regain herself in this, trying to go higher.

Then, Faith, staring at the rocks in front of her because it didn't seem to matter whether her eyes were opened or closed, except maybe one rock might have quivered a moment ago, or else she'd just been staring at it too long and too hard after days, now, of meditation, which was turning out not to be her strong suit, what with the difficulty in emptying everything from her mind but the Force, even though she could feel it, feel it everywhere, in the rock that may have just moved again. A glance out of the side of her eye to the blonde slayer next to her. Had she seen it?

A smile to find that girl's rocks firmly on the ground. She was squirming. This hadn't been an easy couple of days for her either.

"Focus, you must."

Buffy fidgeted again. "Kinda tough when you sit me on a rock."

"The rock is part of the Force."

"And it's about to become a part of my ass!" She was on her feet now. R2, Dawn's rocks, and Willow all dropped heavily to the ground with the distraction. "I can't do this anymore, be all meditate-y…I just can't!"

"What she said." Faith scrambled to her feet, too, wondering why she hadn't thought of this approach earlier. "Except I wouldna said meditate-y."

Willow was up, too, then Dawn and, next to her, Luke. Yoda scrunched up his mouth at all of them, sighing.

Dawn tossed one of her formerly-floating rocks from hand to hand. "It's true, you know. Even Giles never made her meditate." A pause. "Well, maybe that one time with the crystals around her birthday. But that was a bad scene not to be repeated."

"Right. See?" The blonde slayer looked back and forth between her sister and the Jedi Master. "Meditation equals badness."

Yoda shook his head. "Too undisciplined. Too old."

"Hey! Who're you calling old?" Buffy kicked at the rock that had been digging into her butt.

"Well, you _are_ the older slayer, B." Faith stood by her rocks, now pretty convinced that one of them _had_ in fact been moving before.

"Not helping here, Faith."

Willow rushed the fill the void. "But Buffy _is _young! She's young and agile and full of slaying energy and you should see sometimes when she fights—"

"How agile is she now, Red?" One corner of Faith's mouth tipped up at the redhead's ferocious blush.

Buffy ignored Faith's dig. "There you have it! Youthful Buffy."

The Jedi Master was still shaking his head. "Too old to learn the ways of the Force."

"But, Master Yoda," Luke was in the middle of it now, too, his own destiny on the line. "you said I was too old, too, but Ben was training me, and he would've trained Faith, too, which would probably mean training Buffy, since they're so similar—"

Both slayers looked at him and then at each other. Similar?

Yoda just looked at the young Skywalker. "See the Force, Obiwan could, but not the ability to be trained in it as a Jedi. Think of your father. Obiwan's apprentice, he was."

That sore subject. The Jedi Masters that had not told him about his father. That had lied to him about that. He flexed his mechanical fist. "But I'm not like my father!"

"Right, so, Luke's not like his father, Dawn and I aren't chasing secretaries, so that's a no for us, too, and Willow's father is pretty much a nonentity, and Faith…um?" The blonde raised an eyebrow at her counterpart, at a loss, and embarrassed she was at a loss. After how long she'd known Faith, she still couldn't say much about her past, her family. But the younger slayer was too involved in answering to see Buffy's frown.

"Fuckin' son of a bitch." Faith was done thinking about him. At least being a slayer had gotten her away from that.

Buffy waved a hand from Faith to Yoda. "See? Less of the 'dear' and the 'old' for her, too! So now that'd we've established that we're nothing like our parents, maybe we can move on with the more action-oriented part of this Jedi training, which is more suited to our youthful selves."

"Jedi training, you were doing. Becoming master of your mind. Your friends, they see. Reach out with their minds, they did, to the Force in the rocks, in themselves."

"Faith didn't! Her rocks weren't doing anything!"

The younger slayer stepped up. She was not going to be exhibit A in this conversation. "Hey! They were, too! They quivered."

Buffy turned to Faith. "They _quivered_?"

Now that Faith heard it coming out of the other girls lips, the word seemed strange. "Yeah. They moved and shit." Keep it simple. "Which is more than yours were doin'." Keep it familiar.

"Well, you got to have a teacher earlier!"

"Who, Ben?" First guy she saw after being in jail and winding up here. Buffy didn't get to talk about him. "That was one freakin' lesson on a ship before we got sucked into the Death Star and Vader cut him in two right in front of me!"

Buffy already had her mouth open to fire back before the words sunk in. Faith kept waiting for that retort, seeing Luke's pained expression out of the side of her eye, seeing in her mind's eye her own first Watcher. The one who'd been cut down in front of her, too. If teachers had such a habit of dying on her, then why was she here? Did she really think this bent-over green gnome was going to be able to make her a Jedi before something happened to him, or her, or whatever? Stupid to think life was anything but a pattern.

Buffy clamped her mouth shut again. She wondered how much of that eldratz was left. She'd taken some in the hanger there with Faith, and more on the ride here, and…. Her hand pinched at the bridge of her nose.

"The past, that is."

Both slayers looked from each other back to the Jedi Master between them. He had one hand out towards each of them, eyes closed.

"Strong the Force is with both of you."

Faith almost closed her own eyes at that. So there _was_ something to this. She really could be a Jedi. She could practically feel the current of energy—of Force—between her and Yoda's hand, through Yoda, into Buffy, and back.

But Yoda was still going. "Strong and uncontrolled. But master it, you must."

Buffy broke in. "Okay, I'd thought we were all on the same page about the non-workingness of the meditation—"

The Master's eyes fixed on her. "Master it and the spice."

Buffy frowned at that, but waved a hand to brush three years of tempest and fights and hell aside. It may have been more than most people could take, but is that a virtue? To have the ability to take more than most people could bear? "Right. Spice. Spicy Kung Pao Buffy. The slayer's working on that. And it could work a lot faster if there was more doing than sitting."

Yoda looked between them, screwing up his mouth as he thought. "A different approach, hmm? Perhaps." Nodding. Turning back to Luke. "Keep training, you will, while we are gone." Back to the slayers, a slight smile. "Run, they will."

"Now, see, _that'_s more like it!" Faith was already looking around to where they would run in the swampy land. A path somewhere, swinging through the trees? She didn't care. Turning, she saw that Buffy had stripped off the tunic she'd been wearing. The white top underneath clung to her: strips of thin cloth wrapped time and time again around her body. Like she had cracked her ribs and attacked the gauze. It left little to the imagination.

"Buffy!" Dawn cried out at the sight, still, of those purple webs from the tempest that hadn't faded completely.

Willow sucked in a breath at the same, and, Faith suspected, at the rest of that nearly bare torso. Faith was looking herself. She'd run a hand up the skin that was just underneath in the dream. She'd found that breast. Willow'd found it, too. And she needed to be running. Right now.

But Buffy was already ahead of her, so Faith took off after. They were finally getting to _do_ something. She could feel the muscles in her thighs stretching at the chance. A grin on her face. One long stride, then two after that blonde streak in front of her.

And, then, suddenly, both of them went through the mossy ground, splashing into the water and the mud below with a cry.

* * *

Yoda was there when they came up sputtering, mud weighting them down. He tapped the tip of his walking stick on Buffy's head, looking down at them from ground that looked just about the same as what they'd so confidently stepped onto a moment earlier.

"Later for swimming. Now you run."

The blonde slayer glared up at him, grabbing a rock to pull herself up. She held out a hand to Faith, and Faith took it, leaves and all, and came up on to the solid ground next to Buffy.

Behind them, Dawn, Luke, and Willow were laughing. Even R2 was beeping something suspiciously like laughter. Faith looked down at herself, then over at Buffy. The other girl was trying ferociously to fingercomb out the leaves and the mud from her formerly blonde hair. Faith couldn't help but snicker, too.

"Good one, little green man. Good one." Wiping some of the muck from her own face and slinging it down at Buffy.

"Hey!"

"Wanna try this again, B?"

Buffy set her jaw. "Yes." And to illustrate her words, she started again, trying to watch where she stepped, trying to move slow enough to—

She ended up in the swamp again.

And came back up, spitting the mud out of her mouth as she talked. "Will somebody please tell me how I'm supposed to run when—"

"The Force." Yoda hadn't been able to wipe the smile completely from his wizened face.

"Okay, if I'm supposed to levitate over this stuff, I think you are seriously overestimating the skill I showed with those rocks earlier."

"Buffy, I think he means you have to reach out with the Force." Dawn held a hand down to her sister, pulling her up and out for a second time. "Like you can feel it."

Faith stared at the swamp around them. "Like it's in the ground."

"Everywhere, it is. The ground, the water, the mud."

Faith was nodding. "So if you can feel what's what, then—"

Dawn finished the sentence for her, nodding with her. "Then you guys can feel what you can run on. What will hold you up."

"Right…." Faith took a breath, trying to send the feelers of her awareness out. There were so many strands of the Force here. The bright ones around her with all the Force-sensitive people. Buffy. She looked for the underlying hum of the planet and tried a few steps. The ground held her up. Emboldened to try a slow jog.

Behind her: "Okay, I was _so _going to go that way."

Faith slipped down into the muddy water again.

"Or maybe not." Even as Buffy was saying it, she was picking her way in Faith's footsteps to pull her up. But the younger slayer bobbed up first, pulling herself out, shaking the heavy droplets of water from her hair.

"I can do this." Faith said it under her breath, to herself. She set her jaw, and then forced it to relax. Close her eyes. A step, then two, then jogging out further. She hadn't fallen in. A little further, and she was still upright. She stopped, looking back to the rest of them, some twenty feet behind.

Yoda made his way to her, winding through the hassocks and grass as though it were nothing. "Carry me, you can."

Faith bent and let him on her shoulders. He pointed his stick forward. She looked back at Buffy, standing there with her mouth slightly open.

"Hey, wait up!" Buffy scampered after, keeping to where Yoda had stepped, her foot still slipping and nearly toppling her, before she caught herself and made it to them. She stared at the ground as if glaring could make it talk.

"You must feel it. Move with it."

Faith started to jog again, gaining confidence with each found step. Buffy stumbled behind her, trying to break into the run that her slayer longed for, only to end up one leg in the swamp, holding on to a low tree branch.

"I'm trying!"

"There is no try. Only do, or do not." He watched from his perch as Buffy moved haltingly after them, beads of sweat on her forehead.

"Faith, how're you—?"

"Let go, B. You can't _make_ the ground be there. You can't fight it." Faith could feel her body surging with the Force, moving easily over the ground now, faster and faster. She had to call her words back. They were out of sight now from the camp and the others.

"No fighting? This from the girl who's always trying to fight—" Buffy was trying to run fast enough that she wouldn't have time to sink in. Her slayer could accommodate the fast, but not the large expanse that had looked like mossy ground that her foot went straight through and then she just had a mouthful of green.

"Ain't about me, B." A little misstep, but Faith recovered her footing, laying a hand against the trunk of a tree as she turned to watch the blonde pull herself up again. Mud collecting in the hollows around her collarbones. At least you couldn't see the purple webs anymore. "You gotta go with it."

She saw Buffy putting one foot in front of the other again, straining through the spice still running through her, straining through the belief she'd always had that the physical wasn't going to be a problem, that even if it hurt she could do it where others couldn't, staring back at Faith, then staring hard at the ground ahead of her—

"No, B, you can't _see_ it. You gotta let yourself _feel _it." She saw the blonde slowing, taking deep breaths, moving forward again, slowly, then a little faster, feet still slipping, but finding their hold better. Jogging, even, a little.

"Go. Follow, she will." The Jedi Master's voice was in Faith's ear. And with a last glance back, Faith did just that. She went, and it was like a thrill running through her. Like she'd put the slayer in touch with the Force, had them shake hands and make nice, and then sat back herself to listen to them. She was a part of the ground itself. Her feet found their way. She may not be able to levitate rocks worth shit, but she could run, when she figured out the way. And vaguely she could hear the footsteps behind her, the other slayer trying to run with its counterpart, the louder fall of those steps, the occasional splash, that told her Buffy was back there, when she was up here, running through the swampland of Dagobah like she'd been born there.

* * *

They ran on like that into the dusk, the slayers so happy for the chance to stretch their legs that they could've kept going even then.

Yoda's hand tapped the side of Faith's head, and she'd forgotten he was even up there. She slowed and then stopped in a clearing. Stooping, she let him down.

"Gonna have to book it to make it back tonight."

"No need. Stay here, we will."

Faith looked over to where Buffy came into the clearing behind them, mud crusted all over her. Her boots were a cake of leaves and moss.

"I'm all for some camping." The land here was a little less mucky, anyway, the marshland having given way to even denser forest, whose roots held onto the ground better, even though there were still pools of water, black in the coming darkness. "But I'm gonna warn you that B ain't gonna be crazy about sleepin' on tree roots." She propped her boot up on one of those roots, hearing her leather pants creak in protest at what they'd been put through over the course of the day.

"Are you kidding? A tree root is just what I want now." The blonde sank down on one, peeling her boots off to let out the water.

"A home, I have, here." And at the Jedi Master's words, the two girls looked around, seeing nothing until Yoda ambled towards it, and then they could make out its darker shape against the forest. "Some food. Then rest. Then again tomorrow. But first food." And then he disappeared inside and left the two of them in the dusk's fading light.

"On second thought, a hut is better, now that you mention it." Buffy was wiggling her toes to get the mud from between them. "And if it just happened to have indoor plumbing…."

Hearing a splash behind her, she turned to find Faith in the middle of one of those black pools, the skin of her shoulders and back the lightest thing in the dark. Some fifty feet away, Yoda's cooking fire flared up.

"Faith! You don't know what's in there! There could be snakes or—"

"Aw, don't be such a wuss, B!" Faith didn't need to turn to know that Buffy was watching her. "Not like this pool's big enough for the Loch Ness monster. And if some alligator wants to do some wrasslin'…."

"Yes, we know all about your predilection for naked alligator wrestling."

"Hangin' onto that image, are ya?" Now Buffy was definitely watching her. Faith dunked her head back to get the muck out of her hair. "'Course, if you wanna stay all muddy, suit yourself."

Faith smiled at the other girl's grumbling under her breath, gliding through the water, feeling the Force even there, hearing the night sounds of the forest.

The hiss of a breath sucked in, and Faith turned, in spite of herself, to look back and see Buffy, naked and silhouetted against the fire light behind her, one foot down to one calf dipping into the pool, the piles of their clothes on the bank next to her.

Both of them stared.

"It's cold." Buffy, by way of explanation. "I mean, you neglected to mention that." Blushing.

And damn if she didn't look beautiful. Mud and dark and all.

Faith did the only thing she could think of, rising up to send a big wave of that cold water towards the other girl, hearing her shriek as it hit her and as Faith, who wasn't two seconds behind, slammed into her, grabbing her around the waist and dunking her into the water all at once. The two of them rolled underwater together, the day's dirt washing off, hands sliding off each other, legs tangling, until they finally slipped apart and surfaced.

Faith watched Buffy blink for a moment, meeting her eyes, then turning to dunk her head again, run her fingers through her hair to get the leaves out. "Okay, that was totally not fair." Fingers trying to work out the knots.

Faith matched the tone. "Just tryin' to save you from yourself…goin' in slow like that was gonna hurt more."

"Next you're gonna want to play marco polo or—"

But Faith's hand, in spite of itself, had reached out to the other girl's cheek, brushing across it with her thumb. Buffy's eyes shot back to hers. "Dirt. You missed some." And Faith wasn't sure exactly how she was going to get her fingers back, since they seemed to be staying there, their objective already met, to the point she was going to have to explain something in a minute, why they were still there.

* * *

The night vision had both of them lit up in green against the dark, the green that showed the one connected to the other by the hand and the cheek. Still next to each other. Like they were frozen there.

Movement, and he slid the field of vision over to the hut, the little gnome of a creature making its way out of that shelter to where the slayers were. The slayers seeing him, too, and pulling apart from each other.

He clicked the scope off, retreating a little further back into the swamp's gloom. Who knew how sensitive the Jedi Master might be to his presence? And Boba Fett had already seen enough to know that Vader would be interested in these two, in their abilities, in the connection between them. Everything was useful. And he was patient.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: It's like a New Year's Eve gift!

* * *

"What you guys need in this universe is some cigarettes."

"Cig-rette?"

Faith looked into the forest around them, waving off the question. One draw on it and her head probably would've floated right off her body anyway. The dim light from the fires in the hut behind her only lit up the closest trees. She didn't know what half the night sounds around her came from, but were they that different from the night sounds on Earth, really? Birds, insects, little things doing what they did at night. "Can almost see why you live here." All it needed was a moon.

The Jedi Master next to her coughed a little, following her gaze. "Exile, it is. From when the Jedi were almost all killed before. What was left, scattered."

"And now you got a bunch of recruits. Kinda like the idea of an army of us." This time she'd be right there with them.

"And when you return to your world, the only one you'll be?"

"Who me?" Faith gave a half laugh, glancing over. "Got it wrong there. It's B they'll be sendin' back. Chosen One and Only. Whisk her back to save the world again or something. The Powers kinda fuck with her like that."

"Two of you."

Faith looked down at him: the Jedi Master no one would recognize, a hobbled gnome in a ratty cloak. "Two of us what?"

A gnarled hand gestured back in the direction of the hut. "Two slayers. Want you, they may."

Faith blinked, following the finger's point. Buffy was in there, asleep in the flickering firelight. Faith wrapped the blanket closer around her. They'd left their clothes to dry by the fire overnight. And who knew, really? It could be her. Why not? Anything was possible out here with the night and the firelight and a million years from anything they knew. "Maybe you're right." Chuckling. "Be a kick, wouldn't it?" Buffy was in there, under the blankets and the furs. "Nah, I'm just tryin' to do somethin' here. And anyway, they'd probably just be sendin' me back to jail anyway. Friday meatloaf and shanks and shit. Better off here." She turned back to go into that hut again. She'd left it because she was too keyed up to sleep, but now her feet were taking her back inside.

"Careful, you must be." A cough as the Jedi Master pulled his own cloak tighter, stopping her as she bent to enter.

"Oh, I can handle the shanks. Still a slayer and all—"

"No." A croak to interrupt. "Clouds your judgment, she does."

"Who, B?" Faith had to chuckle at that understatement. At the unassuming blonde sleeping just some matter of feet away. At everything behind them. At the sight of Buffy standing naked at the edge of the pool. At the reaction of her own body. She felt like she was floating. "Hey, no worries! Not like I had the best judgment anyway. So maybe cloudy's not so bad."

With a wink she slipped inside.

Yoda stayed outside for a moment more.

"Careful, she will not be."

_You don't know that._ The apparition of Obiwan pulled itself together from the swamp's fog to stand beside the other Jedi.

"Know that you have found more like Anakin, I do. The boy with his anger. Rash just like his father. And now this girl." He shook his head.

_Luke has the younger Summers to steady him. They both have goodness in their hearts, young though they are. The redhead as well. And Buffy will bind them together…. _

"And if the older Summers is not strong enough? Hmmm?"

_She and Faith will help each other. Their attachment—_

"Their attachment is what disrupts. A Jedi does not pursue love. Forswear those attachments, they must, or all of them will fall."

The old man sighed. _Or you may make them do so, by asking so much._

"Much is asked of all of us." Yoda's body bent with another wracking cough. When he could speak again, his voice was hoarse, and his eyes scanned the forest for the answers. Finally, he turned back to the hut and the fires, leaving the two slayers to theirs as he went to his own in another small room. "Uncertain, the future is." And then he ambled in for warmth, leaving Obiwan alone in the clearing a moment more before he dissolved into the night around him.

* * *

The fire warmed the very center of the small hut only. Faith tossed and turned under the furs, the hides of some animals she hadn't seen yet on this world. At every murmur from the blonde only a few feet away, her eyes flickered open and over. Faith could feel the Force running through the planet underneath her, the light of the Jedi Master's power in the next room, the pull of the Force from the girl closer still. Everything was connected. Buffy faced the fire's dim glow, that blonde mane splayed out around her on the bundle of blankets that served as a makeshift pillow. The furs had slipped off her shoulder. Faith watched while she could. She'd been in that body once, trying to take everything, because Buffy'd tried to take her life because Faith'd tried to take her love, because, because, because. She'd held a knife to that throat. She'd kissed that forehead.

Somewhere along the line, she must have dozed off because the harsh intake of a sucked-in breath woke her again. She started up to find Buffy already on her knees in the cramped hut, blinking.

"Bad dream?" This time Faith hadn't been there.

Those wild eyes skittered over to hers, registering where the two of them were. Buffy's hand had already closed around the bottle of eldratz. She looked down and realized it had done so. That same hand was holding up the furs to cover her.

"Bad. Nightmare-y." Running the other hand through her hair to push it back from her face. "Nightmare spiders and snakes and octopi and…"

"Okay, B, you're gonna have to do better than octopuses."

"Not convincing?"

"Nope."

"Even though they've got tentacles?" Seeing that Faith's raised eyebrow, she sighed. Several blonde locks fell back down over her face. She looked out from between them. "I had a dream I stabbed you. In the stomach." Her fingers made a faint gesture in the direction of Faith's stomach and its scar underneath the furs that covered it.

"Past or future?"

A half-smile. "How messed up is it that that's a valid question?"

Faith shrugged. "Is what it is." And even this couldn't snuff out the glow in the pit of her stomach. Even though it should. Even though it shouldn't matter that she'd actually felt like she was getting somewhere today with the Force when they were talking about all this messy past. But there was Buffy with that little smile playing at her lips. A little bit sad, but a smile nonetheless, in the glow of the embers from the fire where Buffy was standing there, holding the furs, which didn't cover the play of muscles in her arms, the sweep of her collarbone. Faith found her own smile. "'Course with the way you run through swamps, it's gonna be pretty easy to get away this time."

They were really going to joke about this.

"Hey, I think I resent that!"

"Dontcha mean 'resemble'?"

"Who knew you were so witty?" Buffy's eyes strayed as Faith leaned back again on her pallet of blankets and laced her fingers behind her head. "You _were_ pretty amazing out there, you know."

Might've even been something like admiration there. Faith didn't know what to make of that, so she shrugged again. "Just felt it, I guess. You'll be able to figure it out."

Buffy leveled a look at her. "Faith, did you see me? I looked like a mud wrestling contestant out there. And, between me and the mud, I wasn't winning."

"Sure you'll do better in tomorrow's wet t-shirt contest." That image popped into Faith's head not entirely unbidden. "And, anyway, you were gettin' better towards the end, there."

Buffy's nose crinkled. "But never good enough until I get rid of this stuff." She looked down at the vial in her hand. With one abrupt gesture, she yanked aside the hide covering the small doorway and flung the spice out into the swamp. "There. See? Now wasn't that liberating?"

Faith's dark eyes watched those green ones. "It's your thing…."

"But I don't want to have a thing. _You_ didn't need a thing to run like that. I want to be thing-free. Just a girl…."

"Just a girl sitting in a swamp, wrapped in fur."

Buffy looked down at that haphazard covering. More skin showing after that last quick move. Glancing over at Faith's legs, uncovered and crossed at the ankle. The length of skin. Back to the furs. "It is sort of medieval, isn't it? Like all we need is some mead or large chunks of meat or…." Back to the shadow running along that outer thigh.

"Better than those spaceships, anyway."

"Warmer, with a pleasant fire-y…." Buffy's eyes traveled all the way up and met Faith's. "…glow." Pause. "Okay, I sort of want to kiss you right now." The shade of a blush as the last part came out all in one quick breath.

"Sorta?" Faith could hear herself, outside herself, saying the words. "Gotta say, B, you sure know how to butter a girl up."

"Alright. Maybe more than sort of. It's just sort of, you know," She reached for the words, "unexpected. Lots of levels of unexpected."

"Like you ain't been dreamin' about it, B." Faith couldn't believe she was still talking. And that she hadn't moved. And that talking was the only evidence she was breathing. They both remembered that last dream at the same instant. Both of them went there.

"But that was a dream and…."

"And this is what?"

"It's real." Faith could see her swallow. "And I _really_ want to kiss you."

"Nobody's forcin' you."

Which was, for once, absolutely true. Faith knew she could've gone over and taken that kiss right then. She'd done that kind of thing before. One might say it was her style. But there she was, staying where she was, leaning back, watching the other slayer watch her, watch with eyes that flickered between Faith's eyes and Faith's lips. Staying where she was was the hardest part because then she was leaving it to Buffy to come to her. Buffy, who was still kneeling next to the door.

Who was moving slowly towards Faith in the dim glow of the fire.

"I know."

Buffy's mouth formed the words and Faith had to blink to even remember what they were in response to. Something about force and choice and here she was still coming to Faith. Buffy was saying she knew she was doing that.

Faith, herself, didn't know what she knew anymore, other than what she could see in front of her: her counterpart in the firelight.

It was a small distance between them. It didn't take long to close. And then Buffy was there, lips pressed against Faith's own. And now that Buffy had come this far, Faith could move again, sliding her hand around under the other girl's hair to cup the back of her neck to deepen the kiss.

Somewhere in there, Faith had laid back onto the furs underneath her.

Somewhere in there, the furs that had been between them had disappeared. And here was Buffy's body pressing against her own, warm skin on skin, furs over all, keeping out the swamp's damp chill.

And Buffy was on top of her.

Faith felt fingers sliding across her collarbone, and she shivered from a different sort of chill. Hands clasping either side of Buffy's hips, clamping them down to her own that were rising up. Hands moving to find the curve underneath Buffy's breasts, feeling the sigh into her mouth as the kiss went on and teeth found her lower lip, tugging, and Faith's fingers found a nipple and rolled it between thumb and forefinger, hearing a little mew of pleasure, of please-don't-stop. And Faith followed the line of Buffy's neck down, lips on skin, past the pulse point that was the high point for the vampires both of them had been created to destroy. Vampires that were not here with them, where it was just the two of them under the furs, and Faith's tongue dipped into that hollow at the base of Buffy's neck, feeling hips grinding against her own as she did so, and then further down to replace fingers with mouth around nipple.

Taut. A gasp.

Buffy's own hands fevered, fumbling across the skin of Faith's shoulders, threading through those dark locks, holding on as Faith's mouth pulled her in. Sitting up, Buffy astride Faith's hips, arching her back to bring herself closer as Faith's hand slid down between them, fingers finding that wetness.

And: "Oh god, Faith!"

A hoarse whisper and Faith stopped because it was her name in the same sentence with something about prayer. Fingers stopped in that wonderful place where they were as Faith cast all of her awareness down there, trying to pick out exactly what they were feeling there that was separate from the cascade of sensations that Buffy was causing elsewhere. With hands. With hips pressing the two of them so that Faith's knuckle brushed back against her own clit and she jumped with it and realized that Buffy was saying her name again, begging for those fingers to move again and find their rhythm again, and so she did, feeling teeth bite down on her shoulder, hard.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Don't know where the time goes, but y'all deserve another of these!

* * *

Faith's eyes blinked open some hours later when she felt the warm spot where Buffy had settled against her shoulder grow cold again. Her brain took a moment to register where it was.

Yes, that had been Buffy there, with her. And, yes, _that_ had been Buffy, too.

And now here was Buffy settling astride Faith's hips, eyes raking Faith's body as her finger drew a line from sternum to scar.

Faith's eyes, meanwhile, kept on blinking at the apparition on top of her. Naked. Those beautiful breasts. The lean sweep of stomach. More scars there, too. All of it on top of her.

She nearly came right then and there.

Her eyes opened wide to see better in the dark. She could kick herself for not banking the fire higher earlier. It's just that there had been other fires to tend to, and how was she to know that here would be Buffy, kneeling, one knee on either side of Faith's own hips all Goddess of the Hunt. Faith's pupils couldn't dilate enough to let all of that in.

She didn't even realize that her hands had come up to find those breasts until she heard Buffy's muffled gasp.

"You're awake? I didn't mean…."

"Jesus, B. I'm not that hard up for beauty sleep, am I?" A grin.

An answering smile. "Nope. No more beauty sleep necessary." She took the fingers that were tracing the curve underneath her breasts and kissed their sensitive tips and then the knuckle above them. "Less, in fact."

"S'that so?" Faith watched Buffy's mouth make its way down the inside of her arm. She had to concentrate to talk.

"Mm-hmm." Muffled into the skin of Faith's shoulder.

Faith's hands had gone back to Buffy's breasts, teasing the nipples between thumb and forefinger. "So, you're into ugly girls, huh?"

"Not ugly." Buffy's sentences were getting shorter, too. Her teeth closed on Faith's collarbone and she glanced up, eyes glittering. "Faith pretty." Smiling around teeth.

"Devolving there, B."

"Nope. Already did that." Each word coming out between a quick breath in between. Seeing the raised eyebrow she went on. "I went all 1,000 years B.C. once. It was a problem with beer."

Faith chuckled. "Thinkin' I missed all the fun parts." All the parts that weren't the two of them trying to kill each other. She took a nipple in her mouth.

"Here…now." Buffy arched into it.

Faith's tongue made a circle. "Good point." Hands pushed against her shoulders, pushed them down against the ground and then Faith was the one who was arching to a touch, to Buffy's kisses down and across her breasts. "Here and now."

Here and now, which was surreal and wonderful. She caught glimpses of Buffy in the dying firelight, fiercely beautiful and on top of her, that blonde mane tickling across her face and chest and ribs and down across her stomach as she sucked in a breath.

"Faith…." Lips hovering on the ridge of a hip bone. "Faith, I've never…."

Never what? Not never. Not now. Faith's mind raced ahead of itself as it tried to focus. Oh, right, never done _this_. This that was hitting all the right spots to turn her on, like Buffy'd been inside her skin…which she had, and she'd been inside that skin, too, and it'd pretty much be a lie to say Faith hadn't looked or touched and…. The lips were still there, hesitant, waiting for her to say something.

"Perfect. Everything you do. Perfect…." Like an exhale. And then she could hardly bear to look down and see those lips brushing against her inner thigh, a tongue drawing a line up that muscle. Not look down because she'd lose it right then and there, seeing that tongue going all the way up. "…and holy fucking jesus!" She jumped as that hot mouth brushed past her clit. "God…Buffy…."

Faith's eyes unscrewed themselves, feeling the stillness between her legs. Opening to find green eyes looking up at her.

"You said my name."

"I what?" The blood was not feeding her brain. It'd been diverted elsewhere. Then, it hit her. Buffy. She'd said the whole of it. "Gotta say I'll call you anything you want, so long as you don't stop." Buffy was still close enough for Faith to feel the air as she breathed. "Buffy, Buffy, Buffyyy!" Sing-songing it up into a crescendo until the blonde clapped a hand over her mouth, giggling.

"Shhh!"

"Just sayin' your name."

"_Just_." The older slayer swatted Faith on the thigh. "Like I haven't been a letter since we met. And, anyway, there is a little green Jedi Master in the next room and—"

"Now don't tell me you wanna invite him…."

"No!" And then Buffy clapped her hand over her own too-loud outburst, blushing, then giving her counterpart a mock glare. "Bad Faith."

"That's my name, don't wear it—oh god." The back of Faith's head knocked against the floor as her eyes rolled back and those were the last words Faith could manage to get out, that last prayer that the hands that were holding on to her quivering hamstrings would keep their holding on, and that the tongue darting out to taste would not stop as the edges of her vision dissolved into explosions of light.

* * *

Faith stood in the middle of the bog, looking back at Buffy as she jumped from one felled, mossy trunk to another across the forest floor, her face a mask of concentration.

"A part of the ground itself, you are. Not separate. Not your foot on top. Two strands of the Force meeting: your foot, the tree's trunk."

Yoda was watching, too, leaning heavily on his walking stick.

"Me and rotting trees," The blonde slayer leapt to grab a tree limb and swing across, landing lightly on her feet. "we're close. Lots of closeness." She snapped the limb from its trunk and held it in front of her like a sword then swing it around in a blow that might have taken off a vampire's head in another dimension. Here, the branch exploded into splinters against the tree. "Slayer 1, mucky forest 0."

"Buffy the Tree Slayer. Watch out, Dark Side."

There was that full name again. The blonde raised an eyebrow at Faith, moving like a gymnast down the balance beam of another downed tree. "You never know. The Empire could have a Swamp Thing." One foot slid a little underneath her and Faith could see the muscles in her torso tense to keep her upright. "Don't underestimate the power of slime."

"Empire and the Dark Side. The same, they aren't."

Both slayer heads turned from each other to the Jedi Master, the one they had almost forgotten as he watched from the side.

Faith was the first one to say something. "Don't try to sell me that Vader's working for the good team. He's all in black, for fuck's sake." Not to mention the torture. She could still remember him in her head as her body had screamed in Cloud City. And she knew Buffy was watching her now, but she kept her eyes on Yoda.

"Vader may be aligned with the Empire, but the Dark Side he serves."

"Even though he's Luke's father?"

At the other slayer's incredulous words, Faith glanced over. Of course. Buffy hadn't had him in her head. Hadn't had that fire shooting through her body. Didn't know that He knew about Buffy already, thanks to Faith giving her away. Faith clenched her jaw at her own weakness.

Buffy was still talking, the blonde of her hair and white of the shirt that clung to her bright against the dark of the forest. "I mean, Luke's sensitive to the Force, like his father. So is it just that Vader turned it bad because of who he is, like Luke goes good because of who he—"

"No!" The Jedi Master's croak cut her off. "Light and dark there are. Choices made about the path to follow."

But Faith was looking at Buffy, the halo of the Force around her, the light that ran along the filament of slayer connection between them. Her heart wasn't a choice. Cloud her mind with drugs and she was still good. Even when she'd stuck a knife in Faith's belly, it had been good. Faith could see a little tension fall from Buffy's shoulders. Like, if it was a choice, Buffy knew she could make it. And, Faith knew, even if it wasn't a choice, Buffy was safe. Good by choice or good because it's what you are, Buffy was the white light either way.

Faith, however, wasn't sure which was she wanted it. Standing on a small island of ground indistinguishable from the bog around it, she forced herself to grin over at the girl she'd made love to all night. The girl who had come to her. "Question is, B, can you do better at findin' that Force path today than yesterday?" Faith wasn't even aware she'd resurrected that old nickname. "Can you figure out how to walk on water?"

Buffy sized up where Faith was standing. "Okay, tell me you aren't standing on—" Two steps into the space between them and Buffy was chest-deep in water, the moss that had seemed so solid rippling with the water underneath it. Turning to Yoda. "Can she do that? Is there water-walking? Nobody told me there would be water-walking."

Yoda said nothing, his eyes moving between the two young women .

"What, you can't take the Force to the next level, B?" One corner of her mouth tipping up. "Not your foot on top. Two strands of the Force meeting: your foot, the water's surface."

Buffy rolled her eyes at the imitation. She took another step forward and splashed down to her neck, then taking a quick three steps back to scramble back onto firmer ground. The water dripped off of her. "Okay, I can do this. Buffy can focus. Buffy can be all Jesus Christ Superstar." She furrowed her brow and placed a foot on top of the moss in front of her again. And again fell through.

"Told you there would be a wet t-shirt contest today."

Buffy wiped the water from her face, green eyes glinting in the filtered light from above. Trying a different tactic. "Oh? And how'm I doing?"

"Lookin' pretty good from here." Faith's eyes followed the curves of those breasts. Her eyes met the other girl's spark.

"Oh really? You're not just saying that?" Buffy held Faith's eyes, swimming towards her through the water.

Faith watching the other girl coming, transfixed by the pale figure sliding through the water in a line towards her. "Well, you know, good as tits can look when there's all this moss and—"

"Okay, I _knew_ you weren't walking on water!" Buffy's hand had found the swell of ground underneath Faith's feet.

Faith's grin widened. "Well, maybe not technically, but it was sure funny seein' you try to—gah!" And then a slim hand had closed around her ankle and yanked her down into the water with a splash and then they were both tangled in that water together, limbs together, hands that found each other again, remembering the last night as they came up together, sputtering, the water leaving nothing to the imagination for either of them.

"Funny like you looked just then?" Buffy was smiling, too, now, keeping just inches between them.

"If you wanted another wet t-shirt contestant, you coulda just asked. I'd have seen if Yoda wanted…."

"Maybe I wanted a fair fight." She slid even closer.

"Says the girl who just yanked me down into the water without warning." Faith had one hand on either of the other girl's hips, steering them right against her own. She heard the muffled moan catch in Buffy's throat at the contact.

"Oh, and like you didn't deserve that for trying to make me think you were walking on water."

"Who'd a thought you woulda believed me? You're the Christ figure here." Faith lifted those hips and felt Buffy's legs wrap around her waist. "Or maybe Jezebel." Raising an eyebrow. "She was the slutty one, right?"

Buffy had already opened her mouth in feigned indignation, but Yoda spoke before she had the chance.

"To become Jedis you are here." Two lightsabers floated from Yoda's outstretched hand to hover next to the two slayers.

"Thought we didn't get to do this sparring shit." Not that that stopped Faith from grabbing hers out of the air and flicking it on.

"Focused in the Force, or the Dark Side will find a way."

The slayers pulled apart and out of the water, their eyes bright in the glow of their weapons, powered on.

"Focused, huh?" Faith looked over at Buffy, watching the Chosen One move the blade in a slow figure eight as she felt the balance of the weapon in her hand. The graceful predator. Faith pulled her blade in front of her, seeing her counterpart grin and do the same, all smooth muscles and thrumming energy. The fight and the body she knew. "I'm thinkin' he doesn't get just how distracting this is gonna be."


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Thanks, as always, for still reading!

* * *

They went at it for hours.

Fighting was what they did best.

And if, in the course of fighting, they pressed in close so that the blades were the only thing in that bare nothing of space between them, was that really so surprising? They'd always fought like that.

Granted they hadn't always had done so in the afterglow of mouths on bodies and hands on bodies and not being able to tell whether it was better to touch or be touched….

Okay, actually they'd never done that.

Until now. Faith grinned as she flipped backwards on the branch, evading the lightsaber that was coming for her. But just barely, though. Good at picking her way through the bog with the Force Buffy might not be, but she'd never been a better fighter.

Not that Faith would tell her that.

"Old age slowin' you down, B?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow, darting suddenly forward along the branch to feint left and twirl back right, slicing down so close to Faith's shoulder that the younger slayer could feel the breeze as she cut past. "Do I look slow to you?" She smiled as Faith had to swing up to another higher branch to regain her balance and distance.

"Well, from here you just look short."

"So now you're resorting to short jokes, huh?" Buffy sized up her next strike. "Maybe if you'd stop running away so far, I bet I wouldn't look so—"

Buffy didn't have time to get it all out before Faith had leapt from her branch in a graceful arc that took her down towards Buffy, who had quickly assumed a defensive stance but had to resort instead to just grabbing onto the other slayer as they collided and tumbled down to the forest floor below.

Buffy's breath blew out of her chest as she hit the mud on her back, Faith on top of her, one corner of her mouth tipped up, the lightsaber's glowing blade loosely over Buffy's throat.

"See, now you just look dirty."

Buffy hooked a leg around Faith, grabbed a shoulder and flipped her so that their positions were reversed, and now Faith's breath was catching in her throat. "Didn't seem to bother you last night." The hand with Faith's weapon lay on the ground, pinned down by Buffy's own hand and weapon. On the other side, hand held hand, too.

Faith watched Buffy on top of her, a flashback to the previous night, excited eyes. "Well, you know, you were busy tryin' on the whole seduction thing for size, so I didn't wanna get ya off topic." Faith's voice had dropped down into a husky whisper for just the two of them.

"Me? I think _you_ were the one seducing _me_." Buffy settled her hips against Faith's, fitting them tighter together. Fighting and sex were both coursing through her in equal measure. She wouldn't have wanted the eldratz to calm her down now even if she still had it. "You're the seduce-y one, after all."

"Oh? S'that what I am?" Faith saw Buffy's eyes drop down to her lips and could feel the knees tight on either side of her. "This from the girl who's decided she wants to be on top."

"Would you rather I be somewhere else?" Buffy's own voice had dropped to match Faith's. "Because, from where I am, it doesn't look like you want that. You look like you're pretty happy on the—hey!"

Buffy straightened up as she felt herself lift into the air, off of Faith, hovering. Her eyes darted around and she tried to reach for Faith or something to anchor her. There was a scrambling moment where hands couldn't catch on anything. She was three feet off the ground. Her kicks were getting her nowhere.

"Unfocused, you are."

Buffy's head whipped around from Faith's wide eyes to Yoda's outstretched hand, hovering just as she was hovering. "Okay, that is _totally_ not fair! I was having a conversation over here. A conversation, which is what normal people have—"

"When fighting?"

She tried to swim her way around to give him the full force of her indignant glare, but, without anything to push off from, she wasn't getting very far with that. "Well, maybe not most people, but me, yes. I have fighting conversations." She noticed Faith's muffled snickering. "Oh, like you don't! You were the one with the innuendo in between the fighting and the knocking me off the branch!"

Faith put both hands behind her head and looked up at the floating, discomfited slayer. "Maybe I was just tryin' to keep you off guard. Bidin' my time."

"Oh really? And do your pupils always dilate like that while you 'bide your time'? Because, you know, I've never noticed that before." Buffy was rewarded by a raised eyebrow and maybe, if she wasn't imagining it, just the slightest blush, before she turned to yell back at the uncooperating air around her. "And, for god's sake, will somebody please let me down!"

"Let yourself down you may, if you allow the Force to guide you."

Buffy kicked out again, mumbling under her breath. "Oh, there's gonna be some force alright...."

Yoda sighed, holding the slayer with seemingly little effort at all. "Too quick to fight. Always thinking you do not need the Force."

"Well, let's see, I've survived more apocalypses than you probably have…." She eyed the hunched Jedi. "I mean probably because you probably are pretty old, unless you were born like that…. " Shaking her head to get off her tangent. "But the point is that I did that without any magical Force and I'm still here and—"

"Are you?"

"Um, hello, dangling right in front of you! Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Ringing any bells?"

"A killer without direction."

"It's slay-er, not kill-er." A glance at Faith, whose dark eyes were unreadable. Buffy's own softened a little at an attempt to soften the blow of the unspoken words there, before she turned back to Yoda, still writhing in the air as she tried to get free. "And not like I was going to stay alive in Jabba's palace by knitting an out-of-this-world pot holder."

"Nobody's sayin' you didn't do what you had to." Faith was standing now. She remembered that first sight of Buffy getting on to Boba Fett's ship, all lean muscle and metal and scars.

"Right! See! Faith understands. Why? Because she's a—"

But Faith was still talking, half to herself, half to her blonde counterpart. "But the Force makes you part of something bigger. I mean, you've gotta feel it, B—"

"Of course I feel the Force!" Buffy's eyes flashed at the lack of help she was getting. "It's just that—"

"That better at letting go, Faith is?" Yoda's croak filtered in between them. "At opening herself to the Force?" That croak dropped into a fit of coughing.

Buffy's voice was firm and she'd managed to cross her arms over her chest, which, floating still as she was, managed to look something approaching ridiculous. "It's just that maybe I can't let go, because if I let go the proverbial shit hits the fan and badness ensues."

"Always seeking control." He shook his head. "Will your way back to the ground you cannot."

Buffy looked as if she were trying to do just that. Or glare daggers at the air around her and the forest floor that remained so frustratingly close, yet far away. She closed her eyes to try relaxation, but there was all the fighting in her, the sex, those remnants of three years of tempest and no eldratz anymore to take the edge off….

"Allow the Force to guide you."

Buffy's eyes snapped open. "Guess no one bothered to tell you about primal slayer woman, then?" A glance at Yoda. As ever, he was hard to read. "Likes to crouch, growl, follow dubious hygiene practices?" Her eyes flicked back to Faith. "Sorta guides ye old slayer hand, if you know what I mean."

Faith sniffed. "Yeah, a regular guidance counselor, that one. Like when she came and asked if we wanted to be slayers and gave us little slaying-and-you brochures and let us weigh the options and—oh wait."

The Chosen One raised an eyebrow. "Well, Kendra apparently got a handbook." She could see Faith was staring at her. "Giles didn't think it would work for us."

"Always knew he was smart."

"Right and who needs a manual for 'point-and-shoot'…." Buffy trailed off. The Deputy Mayor popped into both their heads. "Okay," a half-smile, "maybe point-and-think-for-at-least-a-half-second-before-shooting." Plowing on. "But that's a really long title, which neither one of us would've read back then…." Which managed, in its rambling entirety, to be an acknowledgement, an apology, and an olive branch of plural pronoun.

"You tryin' to say I can't read, B?" Faith winked.

"No! I just—" Blushing.

"Naw, B, it's good." She wanted to reach out and cup that cheek. She could imagine it would be hot. All of Buffy's blood rushing to it as she dangled still in mid-air. "But with bein' a slayer, it's all just inside you, you know? One girl alone, and all that. It's not like it is with the Force here, when it's the universe—I mean, the whole fuckin' thing!—with you—and you gotta feel that, right?"

From behind them, Yoda's voice drifted over. "Yes. A matter of feeling."

"Like you have to feel the universe…." She was a part of something. And that hand that had wanted to find Buffy's cheek, somehow found itself instead in the air in between them. Faith looked at it, head cocked, as if she could see the filament of Force that ran between her fingertips and Buffy and the air around Buffy and the forest floor. And then she could see Buffy's wide eyes on her, lips parted in wonder as Buffy found herself moving through the air, feet coming back underneath her, floating down to the forest floor. She could see Buffy was looking at her.

Only when she blinked did Faith realize she had done something. She had moved Buffy with the Force like Yoda had done. She'd done that.

And just as quickly rushed past the quiet moment of what-just-happened. "'Course, B, it _is_ true you and primal slayer chick both like mud." A smile at the muck covering the blonde's back.

Buffy blinked, then reached around to try to brush the dirt she'd just been reminded of. "Ooh, funny girl." She ran her fingers through the tangles for a moment and then turned around, cocking her head at Faith. "How'd you do that?"

Faith shrugged.

"Listening to the Force, she is."

And for the moment, neither slayer knew what to say.

Yoda sighed, drew himself further into his cloak. "Return now." He turned to look back into the forest's gloom. "Return to the others."

But Faith wasn't quite there yet. "So does…." Her brow furrowed as she looked down at the hand that had brought Buffy down to earth. "…does this mean I'm a Jedi?"

Yoda's eyes watched the younger slayer. "Return to the others we must."

"I thought we were already—" Buffy's eyes shifted from Faith to Yoda. "Wait…is everything okay?" The energy of the day still coursing through her. Ready to get up and go somewhere. Do something. "Do you think something's wrong with them?"

"Nothing yet."

"Okay, so much for that reassurance. Which way's back?" But before she got the words out, she could see Yoda already picking his way through the swamp. She turned back to the other girl. "Faith?" Saying it as she was already starting in the Jedi Master's footsteps.

The younger slayer stood a moment more, then flicked a button on her lightsaber, watching the blade disappear, before she clipped the Jedi weapon to her belt and hurried after.

* * *

"Faith?"

It was nearly night when they made it back. If Yoda hadn't been guiding them, Faith and Buffy wouldn't have found it. But, when they stumbled into the clearing, they saw the ship waiting for them, already growing moss, and the small assembly of huts. As they called out, Luke, Willow and Dawn all piled out those too-short doorways. Next to her, Faith heard Buffy let out a held breath at finding all of them in one piece. So there were greetings and exchanges of how they'd filled the past two days until they ran up against the night and their own tiredness.

And then there was the question of sleeping. Faith hadn't looked at Buffy, Buffy'd snuck a sidelong glance at Faith and saw that Faith wasn't looking and allowed herself to be whisked off to one side of the fire by Dawn. Faith was left looking through that fire from her own pallet on the other side. Or not looking through it. Or getting out of that close space to get some air. Which was where Willow found her.

"Faith?"

"Huh?" She sat on a raised tree root, legs stretched out in front of her, back against the trunk.

"Faith, is that you?"

"Ain't so many of us out here that you have to do a headcount, Red."

"Okay, so that would be a yes."

"Whaddya want?" Faith knew what _she_ wanted. Any number of things, one of which was curled up next to a fire and might as well be in the fire for how close she was going to get.

"To see where you went."

Faith leveled her a look.

"Maybe that's a little bit of a lie." Willow picked at the bark on the tree next to her. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything." More picking.

"And now you've said it."

A pause. "Okay maybe that wasn't the only thing either." Another pause. "Not that that means I don't mean I'm sorry because I know everybody got mad with the thing with Buffy and that was _totally_ justified and I was already mad at you about something that's just you and I shouldn't have really expected that we were suddenly going to be together or something or that I even wanted that…."

Faith forced her hand to stay a hand rather than a fist, turning to look at the other girl, the stream of words finally trailing off as she did so.

"What do you want from me?"

"Advice."

The word burst from between the redhead's lips like she'd been holding onto it for a while.

And a bark of laughter burst from Faith's lips in turn.

Willow frowned. "I know, I know. This is not something I would usually—"

"Like, how about 'ever'?"

"Maybe _ever_ ask, but I can't ask Dawn because it's Buffy, and I can't ask Buffy because, not to be repetitive, but it's Buffy, and Luke's not going to be any help," She folded her arms over her chest, trying to look confident in what she was about to say. "…and, well, you might. Know something about it, I mean." She nodded like a punctuation mark.

"Well, that sure made everything a lot clearer."

Willow's shoulders relaxed a little. "It did? Oh, good, because I wasn't sure…." She stopped as she saw Faith staring at her. "Oh, I get it. Not clear enough. Um, okay…." She opened her mouth to start again.

"And I ain't Dear Abby. You don't want my advice." Faith didn't say _because that advice might have you sticking that lightsaber through yourself before you wind up hurting Buffy_. No need to give the redhead any ideas.

But Willow was on firmer ground here. "Right. I thought you'd probably say that because we haven't ever been the closest of friends and when we knew each other you weren't exactly the poster child for good judgment, even though you're better now, but I don't have anyone else to talk to about this and I thought maybe since we, you know…." She took a breath. "I don't know what to do about Buffy."

Faith took a breath, too. So here it was. "You're thinking of doing somethin' to her?" There was a question mark at the end of it, but only a small one. Faith now straddled the tree limb, one foot touching the ground on either side, her hands pressing against the trunk in between them. She could launch up from there in a second.

Willow plowed on, staring into the bark of the tree that she'd practically stripped. "Have you ever had one moment that changed everything about how you see someone?"

Faith's mind could think of a couple. Most recently, looking up across the pond the night before and seeing Buffy there, naked in front of Faith, vulnerable and confident at the same time. Not that Faith let any of that show on her face. Willow was still talking.

"I guess it's sort of like that. Like when I kissed her I didn't realize until right then how I felt and now I can't stop…." Another breath. "Thinking about kissing her, I mean. I think I might be in love with her." Checking to see what Faith's reaction would be. Faith's face was unreadable in the dark. "I know maybe it doesn't make sense. But you share something with her I don't, so maybe you know her better. And then you just spent a full day with her and you didn't kill each other so maybe you talked. Did she say anything about—?"

The floodgates were interrupted by a voice from the hut some 30 yards away. "Faith, are you…?" Buffy's head was poking out the doorway. "Oh…Will?"

"Buffy!" Both Faith and Willow at the same time, Faith sitting up straighter.

"Yes, me." The blonde slayer had come all the way out now into the clearing, looking between the other two girls. "Are you guys…?"

"Red wants to talk to you." Faith hooked a thumb in Willow's direction.

"No, I don't!" Seeing Buffy's raised eyebrow. "Yes, I do! But not—" She stopped and then started over. "I wanted to tell you I'm sorry about, you know, on Tatooine."

Buffy's raised eyebrow turned into plural furrowed eyebrows. "But you already told me that earlier." Reaching out to touch Willow's arm. "And it's fine, really. It was nothing."

"Right. Of course!" Willow looked down at the fingers touching her for a second—glanced at Faith, who was looking, too—before looking back up at Buffy. "Whew! Sure glad we cleared that up! And now there's sleep." With that, she scurried inside.

Both slayers watched her.

Buffy turned back to Faith. "Did she seem, I don't know, nervous?"

"You know Red better." Which was true and Faith knew it. The two of them had been paling around Sunnydale long before Faith came into town. "And she's always kinda nervous around me."

"Good point." Buffy glanced again between the hut's opening and back to Faith. "Was I interrupting…?" She left the space for Faith to fill in the blank. Faith stared out into the forest. "I woke up and both of you guys were gone." She left another pause at the end of that for a moment, but, seeing that Faith wasn't going to fill that one either, she sat down on the root opposite Faith, her knees touching Faith's. She watched Faith's dark eyes, trying to catch them. "I know this is strange—"

"What's strange about a different dimension and an evil Empire and a little green gnome with the answers?"

A little crinkle in her forehead. "You know I don't mean that."

"You don't know what you mean."

"I do, too!" Arms crossed over her chest. "It's my meaning, so I know what it means and doesn't mean!"

"Oh? So what does it mean?"

"I—" Buffy stopped, starting again, in more of a whisper. "I don't know." Seeing Faith's smirk, which made her drop the whisper. "Which was my whole point in calling it 'strange' to begin with. Because what we shared, that was…." She trailed off. Faith was watching her eyes now.

"Lemme guess…strange."

"Yes!" As if Faith had hit on it, before realizing that Faith wasn't trying to help. "Okay, maybe 'strange' isn't the right word, but, you have to admit, this wasn't really what I ever expected—"

"And I never expected to get dragged outta prison and Dawn didn't expect to find herself in Jedi training camp and you didn't expect to be center ring in Jabba's circus and Red didn't expect to be sent all the way here to save you."

"Will's not here to save—"

"She's on a mission to find you and bring you back to dear old Sunnydale so it can all be like it was before." Faith was standing up now.

"But how could it be like it was—?" Buffy stood up in turn.

"Well, here's the thing: it won't be, because I'm not going back." The sentence hung there for a moment. Buffy's mouth, in turn, hung open. "I'm not going back because maybe they need me here. Maybe I can be a better Jedi than a slayer."

"But…but you can't stay here!" The whole thing was just ludicrous.

"Why not?" Faith threw down the gauntlet.

"Because…" A breath's space. "Because you just can't!"

Faith let out her breath. Her gauntlet lay where she'd thrown it. She let the half smile come back to her lips. "Nice first-grade logic, B. But don't worry. Unless Red's gotten a hell of a lot better with the Force in one day, you don't have to start missin' me yet." She put two fingers to her lips, blew the other girl a kiss, and turned and walked away.

Buffy blew out her own breath, talking to no one in particular as she watched Faith saunter back inside. "Well, that went well."


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Egads! Sorry for the long delay! I'm not sure how I turned into a once-a-month updater! Thought there might be another scene or two in this, but we'll just throw it into the next. Thanks as always for your thoughts!

* * *

"More for her here, she thinks."

Buffy whirled around, her gaze leaving the hut that same other slayer had disappeared into to find the hunched Jedi Master watching her in the moonless dark.

"Were you just...?" Buffy glanced at the hut and then back again. Yoda's face wasn't telling how much he'd heard. And, really, in the end, did it matter? She was straddling that same tree trunk again, where she'd just been with Faith. She swept her hands back across her face, brushing back the unruly waves of hair but doing nothing for the strain that still pulled at the corners of her eyes. "So that means she's not going to come back with me?"

"Or that you are not going back."

"Wait…Willow can't—she won't be able to do it?"

"That you stay by choice or force. Or you go." He shrugged as Buffy's mouth opened to say something. "Unclear, it is."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Okay, that was vague, even for a prophecy."

"The future only."

"Oh, well, then…a future of murkiness. I suppose that's better than a prophecy of death. See, it's my lucky day!"

"A coming battle for the galaxy, there is…."

"Or not so lucky."

"…pitting Jedi against Sith, against the Dark Side."

"And I'm in Camp Jedi learning how to make lanyards. I get it." Seeing Yoda watching her. "Really, I get it. I'm needed here. She's needed here." A glance towards that hut, then back to the Jedi Master. "And Dawn…she's gotta be in your prophecy, too, because she'd all Jedi these days." A hint of a smile at that. "The vamps aren't going to know what hit them when we get back to Sunnydale. Little Dawnie, all grown up."

His face was drawn as he looked into the dark forest around them. "A role to play, she has." He looked back at the blonde slayer before him "And you, as well."

"I'm role-girl. Just point me at badness and I fight it and—"

"More will be required of you." The voice assembled itself out of the fog, sounding first before the ethereal body of a robed old man followed it. Buffy's interrupted thought still hung in the air as she stood now, body tensed at the new arrival.

"Do I know you?"

Those old eyes regarded her as well. "You are the other girl in the sand. The one I could not reach in time."

Buffy's eyes hardened a little at the mention of the sands. A past she'd rather forget. Or rather not have had to forget in the first place. "Right. I know who _I_ am. It was you I asked about."

And it was Yoda who answered her. "Found Faith in the dunes…of Tatooine three years ago…Obiwan did." The long sentence interrupted by coughing.

"Ben?" Buffy's head swiveled between the apparition and Yoda. "The Ben Faith talked about?" Obiwan gave a single nod, resting wearily on the trunk she had just jumped up from.

"I am sorry I could not teach her more."

Buffy's eyes strayed back to the hut. She could feel the other slayer within it when she reached along the strands of the Force. "She's doing good, considering."

"Learning, she is."

"No, I mean _really_ good." She turned to Obiwan. "She mentioned the whole problems-in-the-past thing, right?"

"I know enough of it to know it drives her." His eyes took in the girl in front of him. The pale strips of cloth that formed her top wound tight around her chest and stomach, the splattered dried mud on them, the faint scars on her bare arms, the compact metal of the lightsaber at her hip. "I know that you drive her."

Buffy blew out a breath, her mouth cracking a smile at that. "Crazy? Wild? To drink? Faith and I—"

"She wanted to find you."

Buffy's face went blank, and then reassembled itself. "It may have escaped your notice, what with you being dead, but we've tried to kill each other once already since then."

But Obiwan didn't let her get away with it. "And you've also followed her through the woods since then."

"What, are you watching all the time, now? Because, let me tell you, that's a little creepy. Not to mention the woods thing was all about Jedi stuff—"

In a blink, she found herself staring at the hum of her own lightsaber, now on, now an inch from her neck. "Wha—?" How it had gotten there, she could hardly say, but it was the more diminutive of the Jedi Masters in front of her at the other end of it. The slayer twitched to bite back. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"Overestimate yourself and underestimate others, you do." Yoda shook his head, keeping the weapon in place. "A Jedi, you are not."

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw Obiwan rise. "Yoda, the girl is rash, young…."

But the elder Jedi did not give him time to finish. "A time for youth, this is not. Not with the Dark Side so close."

The slayer's eyes flashed. "Well, you're old and I don't see you out there fighting the big bad Dark Side!" She held her ground, lightsaber at her throat or not. "I come half a universe and what do I get? Last man standing from another council that wants me to do its fighting for it!"

"Fighting you are ill-prepared for. Anticipate the attack, you cannot." He gestured with the weapon at the bare throat already in its sights. "Not when you are distracted by your feelings."

"You don't know what I'm feeling!"

He thundered back at her. "A Jedi does not act from his feelings. That is the way of it."

"Well, the way is dumb!" And in a blur of slayer speed, she stripped the Jedi Master of his lightsaber and sent it windmilling off into the dark, leaving scattered limbs cut short in its wake. She stood still where she was, almost daring the Jedi to fight her without the laser blade. All she'd been doing was fighting for the better part of her life, and with a lot less fancy weapons. "And if you think Faith's going to follow your rules, you'll find she's even less of a rules-girl than I am."

Yoda sighed, slumping back a little. "Ready for the Dark Side, you must be."

"Just let them try me."

Another sigh. "Afraid of that, I am."

And because she had nothing to say to those fears, Buffy turned and walked back to the hut, standing it the doorway, looking in. It was near blackness now, the fire long burned down, the heavy breaths of sleep from the room's occupants.

All except for Faith.

From the doorway, Buffy knew where her counterpart was, even in that black. And she knew Faith was watching her look in. Buffy's mind was a din of voices and thoughts and memories, her body still tense from the encounter a few moments ago. She stood there, without the assistance of moonlight, wavering in the dark. She kept standing there until she had stood there long enough.

She went inside.

She felt Faith's hand make contact with her own.

It was the pad of fingertips, first, that touched her. She took the hand in her own.

And here they were with all their messy, distracting feelings. Buffy sinking down on that pallet of blankets on top of Faith, her lips sinking down to find Faith's even as the catch in her throat nearly stopped her breath altogether. Their lips finding each other there in the dark.

Not a word.

Breathing into each other's mouths.

Someone stirred and they both froze.

Waited what seemed like long enough and then caught at each other again, more feverish in their hushed need. Buffy kissing at the pulse point on Faith's neck. Faith's hand slipping between the wrapped swaths of the white cloth, unwinding it, sliding one nipple down between her index and middle fingers as hand cupped breast and her tongue reached up to flick that sensitive tip. Buffy put a hand over her own mouth as she gasped. Other hand splayed on the ground to help hold her up. Hips grinding together. The stiffness of Faith's leather against the insides of Buffy's thighs. Faith's own muffled gasp as she moved her mouth down that pale torso and felt the nails raking her back, holding her close. The fingers threading through her hair.

"Faith…."

Barely a whisper, but Faith caught her name and brought her face up to Buffy's, kissing at the tears she found there.

"Faith, I'm sorry."

In the time it took Buffy to say it, a dozen responses came and went until there was just the one left: "Me, too."

And before either one of them had time to think about what exactly they meant or heard in it, their bodies were pushing them tighter together. Mouth capturing mouth, hands racing over skin to get more, closer. Faith's hand sliding down between them, pulling the string tied at Buffy's waist loose and slipping her hand inside, fingers finding warmth. A small cry from Buffy's mouth, buried in Faith's shoulder, as those fingers found their rhythm. Feeling all that contact. Feeling along the leather seam of Faith's pants until she too was inside, feeling Faith clamp tight around her. Feeling, feeling, until an explosion of it.

Left with hiccupping breath, trying to quiet itself again. An ear for the sleeping figures around them. Nothing. They'd done it. Buffy brushed the back of her knuckle along Faith's jawbone, and then got up to slip back into her own pallet on the other side of the fire.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Egad! I can't even begin to offer an explanation for that delay! My apologies if you find yourself having to refresh your memory and my thanks for your patience!

* * *

The morning found Buffy alone in a tangle of blankets. The hut was empty. The damp had seeped in.

Yep. She was still here.

Buffy groaned and turned over onto her back, wondering, not for the first time, what she was doing. She could still feel the ghost of Faith's leather against her inner thighs. Her lips felt bruised as one corner of her mouth tipped up. Faith would have a ready answer for just what exactly she was doing.

A simplistic answer? Probably. Wrong? Unclear.

Outside, the other slayer's voice. Yoda's croaking reply.

See, Faith could still end up a Jedi in spite of her.

Buffy parted the curtain that hung in the doorway and, ducking her head, stepped out into the brighter gloom of the Dagobah forest. Droplets of water sought her out and settled on her bare arms and collarbone.

"Okay. I'm not sure if I'm prepared to deal with this upside-down-ness without coffee first."

The Jedi students were arrayed in front of her in the clearing. Standing on their hands, or, in the case of Luke and Faith, on one hand only, the other hovering, holding on to nothing as it balanced them.

"Buffy!" A thud as Willow's feet toppled and hit the ground.

Buffy smiled at the familiar exuberance of her friend. Dawn let herself down a little more gracefully. She was coming into her own here (or had when Buffy'd missed it). Buffy stole a glance at Faith, who'd kept her poise. She followed the line of the arm holding the brunette up to where it connected with shoulder and melted into torso. The skin of her stomach showed a little in between the shirt that had ridden up and the waistband of that inevitable leather.

"You're up!"

Buffy blinked and looked again as Willow was in the process of dragging Dawn over. "So it would appear. You know, if I knew that I was going to get this kind of greeting every morning, I would—"

"I've got to show you something!"

Yoda's eyes followed the redhead as she bounded over to Buffy. He shook his head. "Focus you will never learn, so long as—"

"I'll be right back, Master Yoda, I promise." The student's desire to please. "But it's just that Dawn and I worked on this yesterday while you guys were gone and I think it might work!"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Dawn, then Willow, as the two stopped in front of her. "Okay, lots of vague pronouns there. What might work why?"

"To get us home!" As if it were the most obvious answer possible.

Luke dropped from his handstand, brushing his damp hair out of his eyes as he looked at Dawn. "To your home? You worked on that yesterday?"

"It was mostly Willow. When you were meditating."

"You were meditating, too."

A little furrow appeared. "We were, but then Will thought she was finally feeling the Force in a way she could—"

The redhead cut back in. "And, Buffy, we did!" She bit her lip at the oversell. "I mean, a little bit anyway. Dawn, show her." She nudged the younger girl, handing her a small piece of sharpened rock. Seeing all eyes on her and on the rock and on the paler skin on the inside of Dawn's arm: "You have to use a something like a knife. The lightsaber just cauterizes and then there's not any blood," she shrugged, "which is the whole point."

And they were all there in the clearing, with their spaceship and mud hut and lightsabers and a little piece of rock. Dawn turned it a few times between her fingers and then, making a little face, dragged it across her skin,parallel to another healing line.

Luke moved closer.

Buffy stared at the droplets that formed along the cut. This wasn't a world where you saw a lot of blood. Hurting didn't require it in the same way here where there were lasers and electric shocks and drugs that took you down. And the last time she'd seen her sister's blood….

The blonde slayer jumped to find Faith suddenly next to her, also looking. She hadn't even heard those boots hit the ground. Buffy found her voice.

"Dawn, you don't have to…."

But it was Willow who answered, eyes wide as they looked at Buffy. "It's okay, Buffy. It's just that we need Dawn to get home. Just like she opened the portal to here. " The careful avoidance of what exactly it was of Dawn's that they all needed. Willow looked down and realized she'd placed a hand on Buffy's shoulder when she'd said it. She bit at her lip as she slid that hand down and took Buffy's hand and placed it over the red dribbling out. "You can feel it, right? Because I know if I feel it and I don't feel the Force as strongly as you do because after all you're a Slayer, so if I feel it…." She took a breath, watching Buffy stare at her hand and the blood just centimeters under it. "And I thought if I could just figure out how to control it, I could just use the Force like magic." She bit at her lip. "I think I'm finally getting the hang of it like…."

The fingers of her other hand pulled apart by way of explanation. As they did so, the drops of blood pulled away from Dawn's skin, towards Willow's hand and then stretched out as Willow's fingers pulled further apart.

Luke's mouth fell open.

Buffy could feel the Force's fibrous connections running from Dawn to Willow to her along Willow's hand, pulling taut and carrying along them the tang of metal.

The droplets became small discs of red. Expanding. Buffy felt like she could hardly breathe. Like the Force was in her throat. It felt like Power.

Dawn watched, her face blank.

Luke balanced on the balls of his feet.

Willow's hands were shaking. Her face showed the strain.

"Red…." Faith herself wasn't even sure where that sentence was going, but her fists were clenched, which told her where they wanted it to go. She pulled her eyes from the expanding blood to Buffy, who was still fixated. She could feel the Slayer's strength and Buffy's fragility, the response to power and the need to go home. The need for so much.

A green hand swiped through the air, caught the blood, and clamped it back down on Dawn's arm, smearing it there.

"Ready, you are not." Yoda looked at Willow.

Willow almost fell with the abrupt dampening of the Force's pull, and, in doing so, almost dragged the unstable Buffy down with her, still holding her hand.

Faith caught Buffy, pulling to keep her upright.

Luke caught Dawn, who drew her arm back against her chest.

The redhead caught herself. "But I am ready! I was doing it! That's the way we're going to get home!" Looking between Yoda and Buffy now. "Buffy, you saw, right?" A pause. "Could you see anything? Through the portal, I mean? Like Giles or Xander…?"

"Or Sunnydale at all?" Dawn had been looking, too, in spite of herself.

Buffy closed her eyes for a second and then shook her head. "I couldn't see any of it, Will." Opening them again to give a little smile of regret. "I couldn't see Tara. " Willow blinked. "Or Giles or anyone…. I'm sorry. It was too small."

"I know." Willow's shoulders slumped. She hadn't needed Buffy's answer to tell her that, really. Her brain was already working at the problem. "It's like I can't pull in enough Force to make it bigger, even with Dawn and even with pulling some of the Force that's around you…."

"Wait, now you're pulling shit from B?" Faith's eyes were dark.

Willow shook her head. "It's not so much pulling as that Buffy—well, all of us really, and you, too, because of the whole slayer thing, and Luke's got it probably through his father—"

"My father didn't give me—"

"She didn't mean it that way, Luke." Dawn placed a hand on his arm as his eyes flashed.

"She's right. You're nothin' like him." Faith looked back at the redhead. "Not to say this shit doesn't reek of him, though."

"I didn't say I was _channeling_ Vader, I was just…." Willow looked back and forth between the circle around her, settling on Buffy. "I just meant that if I could just harness the Force and pull together enough strands of it, like weaving magic, I think I could actually make it into a portal that could get us—"

"Yours to harness, it is not."

Now Willow turned to him. "Why not? That's what you've been asking us to do, isn't it? Harness it, _feel_ the Force. That's why I came here…."

"Not for his own ends does a Jedi…."

Luke couldn't stop himself. "Now wait a minute. Isn't this whole thing," the hand gesturing to take in Dagobah and Yoda and the larger Rebellion still going on in the stars above them, "this whole thing's about making sure the Jedi don't die out. You're getting what you want if we go out there and stop Vader and the Emperor."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Luke's got a point. The Jedi Council—which would be you—wants to keep on doing what it does." She looked around them. "Which apparently consists mainly being cryptic in yucky climates—"

"No!" Yoda's voice rose and then fell into coughing as the stooped Master shook his head. "Bigger—" Another coughing fit allowed Buffy to cut right back in.

"—so you recruit us to go fight Evil in a Dark Cape."

"B, there's still a right and wrong side, no matter who's—"

Buffy put a hand on her arm to stop her. "I get that Faith, but does that also mean we can't try to use the Force to get home, too?" She tried for a smile. "We can multitask. Maybe Will can harness—or rope or whatever equestrian metaphor you want to use—the Force and get us..." Buffy trailed off, just now remembering from last night that maybe Faith didn't want to come, that maybe she wouldn't come with Buffy after all. "We can take care of Vader first, but then maybe we can…."

"Even if it hurts Dawn?" This from Luke.

"Of course not! Nobody's saying—" Buffy opened her mouth, but didn't know where to go with it.

Which gave Yoda just enough time to struggle for his voice, even if only a croak now. "What you fight…is greater. For Order in the Universe. Vader…what watches from the trees…only the instruments of the Dark Side—"

"Instruments like Jabba? Like Boba Fett? Like what they did to me wasn't evil enough?" Buffy spat it out before all of Yoda's words caught up to her. "Wait. Somebody's watching us here?" Looking around at the others. "Did I hear that right?"

She turned to find Faith and Luke already staring into the forest, lightsabers in their hands. "Way ahead of you, B."

"Vader's here?" Dawn's own lightsaber hissed to life. The swamp around them gave up nothing.

"I think he said 'instruments.' Like Vader lackeys." Buffy's own weapon was in her hand before she took another breath. Her words were for Faith even as her eyes scanned the gloom. "Which way do you think?"

Yoda shook his head. He stood in the middle of the four with their lightsabers pointed out and snapping in the moist air. "All around you…the Dark Side…"

"I'm thinking directional here." Faith wanted a way to go. "East, west…."

"…out there…." The words were coming harder for Yoda as another spell of coughing hunched him over. "In the forest…your enemy is…."

He couldn't get the sentence out before the would-be Jedis were racing ahead with it. "Right." Faith gestured with her blade to one section of woods and nodded at Luke. "Gotta be close enough to see us, I figure. Luke, I'm thinkin' maybe you and little sis go one way, while B and I try the other." Faith was grinning. "See who gets lucky."

Buffy glanced over at Dawn. The younger Summers had pulled her sleeve down over her arm. "Dawn, are you sure you can—?"

Dawn just gave her sister a half-smile. "I can do it, Buffy. I was there to get you away from Jabba, remember? This is something I can do here."

Buffy ran a hand over her sister's hair. It was a gesture familiar to both of them, from when they were younger. "I know. Just be safe."

"I will."

"Wait. Who do I go with?" Willow had her own lightsaber in her hand, looking back and forth between the pairs.

Faith glanced back, her eyes already filled with the hunt ahead. "You're with Yoda."

"But a Jedi Master doesn't need—"

That same Jedi Master was still trying to catch his breath, leaning heavily on his knotted cane. The faint refrain of "your enemy" was still on his lips as he wrestled with what he wanted to say.

"Will, please." Buffy turned those green eyes on her. "Yoda's sick. And we have more experience with this kind of thing." A little smile. "This is how we do it." Because it was the way they had done it since they met.

"Okay. Fine." The redhead crossed her arms across her chest. "But if you take too long, I'm coming after. You don't know what's out there." Seeing Buffy start to open her mouth. "Hey! Resolve face."

Buffy couldn't help but throw up her hands at that. "Right. One: find creepy stalker. Two: return in timely manner." She gave a little salute.

And with that Buffy and Faith jogged off in one direction, Luke and Dawn in another. Willow watched them go and watched the forest and then looked at the Jedi Master next to her. "So I guess we wait."

Yoda was not looking at the trees and fog around them. He had not taken his lightsaber from his belt. "Out there…the enemy…is not." His voice just a croak.

Willow looked over at him, keeping her own lightsaber on and ready. "You know, syntactically, I would've led with the 'not.'"


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: I can't even begin to explain the delay. So perhaps, instead, a recap? Where were we? Faith, having helped the Rebellion with one Death Star, is shooting for two, but sure would like that medal this time around to say Jedi. Dawn and Willow show up and see some of the sights along the way (Willow maybe a few more sights than Dawn). Then Buffy shows up, a bit of an addicted mess after three years of blood and sand. But after all that sand, she's up for a trip to the swamp because, why not? And, while Leia tries to play diplomat on the other side of the universe with two gamblers who may or may not have the interests of the Rebellion at heart, the wannabes head to Dagobah to learn the ways of the Jedi and maybe the way home to Sunnydale. And there are some feelings, some of which are mutual, some of which are not, as is the nature of these things. And a Jedi Master who's thinking all of this was a lot easier when he and the pupils were a lot younger. Oh yeah, and there might be some bad guys out in the swamp.

* * *

"Where are we going?"

"You tell me, B. You're the one that keeps climbin' in my sleeping bag."

The blonde glanced over at Faith as they moved through the trees. "I actually meant literally."

Faith shrugged. "Oh, well, in that case, we're gonna find Mr. Stalker, you're gonna zip back to Sunnydale through a big Portal of Dawn's Blood, and I'm gonna help Luke and Leia get this Universe back on track."

"First off, ew." She shook her head to shake the image of Dawn's blood out of it. There had to be a better way. "And, second," Leveling a look. "You know I meant where are we going right this minute."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're so outta slayin' practice that ya can't even figure out how to find the bad guys anymore."

"Faith, last time I checked, neither of us have a homing beacon. And, usually Giles or Willow was able to narrow it down more than just 'somewhere in the forest.'" The bottom of one pants leg was crusted with dirt where Buffy'd slipped into the bog more than once already. "Particularly when it's a whole planet of forest." Her eyes searched the trees around her. "Do you think Yoda's right? That something is out here?"

"He's pretty old, so he probably knows his shit."

"By that logic, you would've paid more attention to Giles."

And why hadn't she? Maybe she should've. Maybe it didn't get Buffy very far. "Hard to trust someone whose idea of a stiff drink is Earl Grey." Faith reached up to a branch overhead and swung on it to launch herself over a pool of shiny mud.

"Well, you never saw the side where he—" At a crack behind them, Buffy stopped, flicked on her lightsaber and brought it around in a great slashing arc. It was only a dead tree falling into itself. Buffy stared at the lightsaber's humming blade. Too jumpy. Unless maybe something was out there. Then not jumpy enough. Her teeth hurt from being on edge. Maybe throwing away that eldratz hadn't been such a good idea. "Do you think Dawn's okay?" The idea of her sister off with her own lightsaber surrounded by the same dense forest full of god-knows-what was a new one. Back home, that wouldn't have happened.

Not that Buffy's protectiveness there had kept her off a very high platform where someone wanted her blood.

"From what I hear of it, better off here than back in Sunnydale." Faith went on. "Least here she can do something. Can't blame her for wanting that."

Buffy was quiet for a moment. Then: "I can't ask her to leave, can I?"

"Two of you are gonna have to work that one out." Dark brown eyes met green. "You know she'd do anything for you, though. Which means you gotta be responsible about what ya ask for."

The blond blew out a breath and then cocked her head to one side. "Strange…you look like Faith, but…." A half smile. "Wait, I've got it! They sent Giles in Faith's body, didn't they?"

Raised eyebrow. "If so, that's gonna make your recent passes at this here body kinda awkward."

Buffy pursed her lips. "Point taken. Not Giles."

"Yep. Regular old Faith."

"Or neither regular nor old." Buffy reached across to touch Faith's arm, drawing the girl's attention from the forest she was navigating. Faith stayed there and allowed herself to be touched. "I don't really think the old Faith would've ever come to find me in the dusty armpit of this universe." A smile. "Pretty sure she would've wished me sand fleas and tromped off to, quote, find the fun." Buffy watched her counterpart. Faith's pants were not covered in mud. Faith's skin glowed with the leftover sun from Tatooine. Faith's eyes glowed because she had a lightsaber in her hand and was out looking for badness. Buffy had drunk in those eyes last night. "New Faith is all heroic and Jedi-y."

"Maybe you shoulda come visit me sooner in prison." Dancing close to that wound, but the two of them were still touching. "I was bangin' out a pretty sweet license plate even then." Faith moved a little closer. "Makin' the world safer, one numbered car at a time."

"Maybe I should've visited."

Faith could feel the heat from Buffy's body, distinct from the damp around her. Buffy's fingers still controlled the touch between them, fingers and palm on her forearm. "Probably not. Probably woulda been a bad scene."

Buffy tried to imagine herself walking into the prison. What would she have worn? Some sundress, sandals in the summer? She wouldn't have been ready for Faith. Some leather, boots? Too busy trying to _be_ Faith. She nodded. "True. There's that plastic glass and the phone." She arched one eyebrow. "Which you would've had to have actually pick up."

"Funnier to watch you mouthing shit."

Buffy's hand slid down to take Faith's own. Both of their eyes watched it. "I'm glad you're here."

"Because it's easier than talkin' through two inches of plexiglass?"

One corner of Buffy's mouth tipped up. "I didn't say that." Her eyes left Faith's then and looked off into the trees. "I'm not really sure what side of the glass I'd be on now, anyway."

"Always on the right side, B." But she saw the older slayer frown, her fingers trailing out of Faith's as she stepped away. Faith felt the knot in her chest.

"Tell that to all the aliens I've killed over the last three years. Most of them just people Jabba screwed over." She sighed. "And it's not like I didn't shove a knife in your stomach, too." Buffy glanced back at the scar they both knew was still there and then up to meet Faith's eyes before turning ahead again.

"It's called surviving." Faith moved after her, feet following the Force that placed them in the right place, eyes reflexively watching the forest for any threat. "It's what we're supposed to do."

Buffy addressed the last part of it. "To come over here and be a Slayer in a world that doesn't need one?"

"So you threw the Powers for a loop with the portal. They're trying to get you back with the vamps. Meantime, maybe Jedi's just another name for it." Faith's lightsaber was up and leveled at the strange world around them. "Doesn't matter what we're called, really. Leia can see you're gonna be a help and Luke's gonna be grateful for another Jedi—"

"I'm not."

* * *

"So why did you let them go if there's nothing there?" Willow took a breath, trying to stay patient enough to figure this out. "Unless this is a test. Is this a test for me?" Looking around at the dark forest, she set her mouth. "I warn you that I'm unusually good at tests."

"Something out there, there is."

The redhead's brow furrowed. "Okay, now I'm confused. Didn't you just say it was here?"

"Everywhere the enemy is. There. Here." Yoda watched her. His lightsaber was still on his belt. He leaned heavily on his walking stick for a moment before turning back to his hut and the still smoldering fire there.

"Oh, for goodness' sake! Omnipresent evil, check. Nothing new there. What we're talking about is what's where. You know, concretely." Willow tried to follow the skeins of Force as they spread out from the clearing. She tried to grab a hold of the web like she had with Dawn, with the portal, but that try had taken something out of her. She felt tired. The lines of Force where indistinct. They told her little. "Are Buffy and Dawn walking into some kind of trap? If the Dark Side's out there in the forest…."

"Always here." The voice was hoarse as the Jedi Master looked back at her, hundreds of years in his eyes.

"And when you say here, you mean there. Or here like this forest. Or planet, or whatever?" Willow's eyes flicked again to the forest, but quickly back again. "See, vague words and inverted syntax are nobody's friend." Seeing no response, she plowed on. "Right, so…I can get this. If it's watching, it's not watching from here, because then we'd see it. So it was watching from there, which means it's out there and there's no reason for me to be here, with a Jedi Master quite capable of doing Force things to defend himself against something that's not here. Which means I should be there. Because you'll be alright, right?"

He ducked into the hut.

"Because you're the Jedi Master, not me, right?"

She looked from him to the forest around them, back again, and back again.

And then she ran off to help.

* * *

Faith looked over at Buffy, whose eyes were trained on the forest, though Faith couldn't be sure whether she was looking for something or away from something. "Not what?"

"Not a Jedi." The blonde shrugged, her shoulders tight. "That's what Yoda said last night anyway."

"Bullshit."

The blonde arched an eyebrow. "Thought you said just a minute ago that he was old and wise." She started walking again, picking her way with the lightsaber lighting the way.

Faith stood where she was for a second, then clamped her open mouth shut again. "If you're not a Jedi, nobody is." She walked after the blonde. The white of Buffy's tightly wound top was light against the dark forest around them. "Yoda doesn't know you like I do."

There were many ways to respond to that one. Buffy turned and felt Faith come up by her side. "Well, if you mean Biblically, then no, he doesn't."

Faith snorted, saving one eye for the forest and one for the girl next to her. "I know you got some questionable taste, B, but…."

"My taste is not...!" She paused, blowing out a breath. "Okay, sometimes, it's bad." Thank god Faith didn't even know about Parker. "More of the time, it's just not immediately obvious."

"Like with Iowa?" Faith raised an eyebrow. The subtlety of that one was escaping her.

Buffy turned to face Faith. "You know, it occurs to me you've tried to sleep with most of the men I've been with." She held the other girl's eyes. "And succeeded." Faith found herself holding a breath, kicking herself for bringing up Riley and the even more dangerous territory of Angel. But if they were going to have conversations, it was hard not to have difficult ones. Buffy looked off into the forest for a moment.

"B, you know that was a long…."

Green eyes slid back to fix on Faith again. "A long time ago in another galaxy?" Somehow, her hand was on Faith's arm again. It didn't burn. Faith hadn't grabbed it and spun her around into a chokehold. "It's amazing to me that I can touch you now and nobody gets hurt."

"You make me sound like a live wire."

"I was going to go with 'really dangerous person' but your version has a better visual." Buffy's brow furrowed. "Except that you were always more tempting to touch."

"Always knew you wanted to get in my pants." Faith said it with a grin, but Buffy cocked her head, thinking it through.

"I don't know. I don't think we were either one in a place where that would've happened." Seeing her counterpart's eyebrow. "Okay, maybe _you_ were, but I wasn't. We were too busy trying to be exactly what the other wasn't." A half-smile. "Now maybe we're not so different."

Faith looked into those eyes and knew there was something to it. Something explained better by Buffy than she could explain it, anyway. They moved on in silence, their feet taking them wherever. These kinds of conversations weren't really what they did best. Buffy's fingers still warm on Faith's arm. She was touching Faith and it didn't hurt.

"Think you're just hot for Jedi." Faith opted for something more familiar.

Buffy rolled her eyes, hearing Faith's leather creak when she moved closer. "Faith, I'm trying to have a serious…." Not that Buffy needed the leather to tell her where the other slayer was.

"…conversation about touching."

"Yes! Wait…no. That doesn't sound right." She shook her head. "Less public-service announcement."

Faith shrugged, trailing her hand on Buffy's hip and working her way upward. "Good touch, bad touch. Stranger danger."

Buffy felt herself sigh into it for a delicious moment. What it felt like to be touched. And then blinked her eyes wide, stepping away. "Yoda!"

"Okay, is there something about me that makes you think 'old guy'?" Faith pulled her hand back and found a place to put it, crossing her arms across her chest. "'Cause between Giles and Yoda…."

"No, it's just…he talked about this." The slayer nodded between the two of them, her eyes older and shadowed. "How Jedi don't do…this."

"This…?" Faith was going to make Buffy describe it.

When that description came, the voice that gave it was hoarse and quiet. "They don't feel for each other." She'd stepped off a plank of a platform, spent three years in dusty hell in a galaxy far away from anything she'd ever known, on the off-chance that there might be a way back or a familiar face or something worth living for at the end of it since she'd tried dying and that hadn't worked out so well. Only to find this: this Jedi thing that was the only thing going for her and for Faith. It was what they were here for, wasn't it?

Feel. Faith chewed on that for a moment. Bit back the "what do you mean 'feel' question" that was sticking in her mouth and went for something simpler: "That like some kind of rule?"

"Beats me. Once again, no handbook." Buffy swept her hair back out of her face where it had fallen. "All I know is I was on the receiving end of a lecture about what I was feeling for you after you left me outside last night when you told me you were going to stay." She blew out a breath. "And I don't think I've ever had that many 'you's in sentence when the you is you." Buffy frowned at her mouth, which was perilously close to babbling now. "The point being, I'm apparently not a Jedi because of it." Quieter: "And I don't even want to know if I want to be one, if that's the price. I've been trying to feel something for so long…."

"B…"

She shrugged, shaking her head. "And, anyway, I'm apparently not helping you be one either."

"You know how I feel about rules." Faith's eyes were hard to read in the dark.

That hand was still on Faith's arm. "Faith, the Rebellion needs you. Luke and Leia need you. You're going to need to be able to control the Force to fight this—"

"Buffy?"

Both slayers turned at the word to find Dawn and Luke, lightsabers out and ready. The younger Summers was watching Buffy's hand, brow furrowed, like there was something she just wasn't quite getting….

The hand pulled back. "Dawn? What are you-?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Um, Dark Side? Here? Luke and I could feel it and followed it. You guys must've, too. I mean, you're here and—"

"Vader."

The blonde's brow furrowed as she looked from her sister to the Skywalker next to her. "I'm what?"

But he was looking past her. "No…Vader." It was hardly a whisper. "He's here."

And then they were all spinning at once, the blades of their weapons leaving a blur of laser light as they whirled to face the threat that was standing in its black mask and black cape behind them in the black shadows. Almost hard to see. Just a glint of laser light off the mask. The Sith Lord ducked into an opening in the undergrowth and disappeared into the cave's darkness.

"Fuck!" Faith hissed it as she and Luke dove in after him.

* * *

"Wait! We don't know…." But Dawn was saying it to the rapidly disappearing backs of Faith and Luke, who went shoulder to shoulder into that dark entryway where Vader had gone. "Or rush ahead." She sniffed. "There's a plan for you."

The air was thick with the Dark Side. Buffy had almost let Vader sneak up on them. Distracted, just like Yoda said. "I thought it wasn't going to be him! There was talk of minions."

"Strictly speaking, I don't think Yoda used that word." Dawn kept her eyes straight ahead on where Luke was moving further and further into the cave. "But that's what Vader looks like. Only…" She bit her lower lip. "There's something about this that just doesn't make sense…."

"It's the Dark Side, Dawn. You can feel it. C'mon." Buffy hurried to follow, catching only glimpses of the glowing blades ahead. "And that's Luke's father?"

"Uh-huh."

"And I thought Dad sucked." Buffy picked her way through the tangle of tree roots, brushing the dangling moss out of her face. "Faith!" She called into the dark and got no response. "Luke!"

Dawn swiped a spider's web aside. "Do you see them? I can't see….'" Eyes squinted to see ahead in the dark. The Dark Side was all around them. "Faith's going too fast…."

"If he's dangerous…."

"Look, he's dangerous. He killed Obiwan. He tried to kill Luke already." They passed still-smoking, cut-off vines, dank holes in the undergrowth, rocks that reached out to trip them up. "He even tortured Faith."

"He tortured…." The images hit Buffy all at once. She'd felt Faith then, while she was on the way to Cloud City with Boba Fett, felt enough to cut through the drug haze, felt Faith screaming out into her mind, felt her pain, felt her need.

And Buffy had severed the link.

Too afraid it was her mind playing tricks on her.

"Faith!" The Dark Side was heavy. Buffy's breath came quickly.

"Luke…wait!" Dawn right behind her. "I just don't get why he would be down here. If he wants Luke, why not just…. Hey!" She reached out to grab Buffy when she saw her stumble.

"God, I hate this place!" Buffy growled at the sucking mud that had caught her. The hanging vines. The gnarled roots. "Faith!"

And then they rounded a corner to find what they were looking for. Luke and Faith tense on either side, their lightsabers raised and ready, the Dark Lord in the middle.

"Faith!"

The younger slayer threw a glance over her shoulder. "Get out of here, B." She took a smooth step to one side, her lightsaber still sizzling in the air. Buffy could see what she was doing, making it so Darth Vader couldn't fight both of them at once, so that by turning to meet one blade he would open himself to another.

"I'm not going—"

"I said, get out of here!" Faith watched the mask, couldn't tell it if was watching Buffy, too. If it knew that she was the other slayer Faith had given away.

"Faith, I'm not—!"

"Look, I don't want you here! Go!"

Buffy opened her mouth again, but caught a glimpse of the steel in the other girl's eyes and the lightsaber that for a moment looked as though it would fight her back as well and clamped her mouth shut. She looked over at Dawn, who could only shrug.

"I don't know. I don't know what's going on, but there are three of us." Ahead of them, Faith and Luke were already moving closer, pressing the Sith Lord back further in the cave. "We can handle it."

"But…"

Buffy's lightsaber hung limp at her side. The lightsaber like the one Faith had just implied she would turn on her. She stayed where she was as the others moved on into the darkness.

* * *

As they moved forward, Vader moved back, silent, unreadable behind the mask.

And Luke and Faith's lightsabers quivered in the air, bristling at this caricature of a man that had taken their first teacher from them, threatened their friends, pulled at their vulnerabilities like unraveling threads. The cut of a red lightsaber down a thigh, the cut that took down Obiwan, the hand around a throat, the looming mask as the pain arced through, the voice in their heads, the lightsaber, the black mask, the voice, the darkness.

Dawn was coming from behind him. The black mask was there watching. Luke's blade made a great slice through the air.

"Fight me!"

At the last moment the red blade flared up and met and held Luke's with a crackling hiss. And then Faith came in on that open side, focused on the weapon in her hands that would cut him down, only to feel the pressure around her throat, that same feeling of helplessness she'd had on Cloud City, when she'd needed to get Han and Leia out of there, the same day she'd first seen Buffy, first known she was really here.

Faith fought to keep her lightsaber in her hand and to finish its downward arc.

It did, but was met with the red blade that had found its way around to meet hers, too. Too slow. She strained to part the crackling blades and bring it around again. The pressure still on her throat. Gasping, dimly aware of Dawn yelling behind her, and all the things they needed to protect were behind them, all the things that were chinks in their armor, and Luke's blade came around to press Vader back again, and she was taking a step to follow, fighting through the hand at her throat, hearing Luke screaming for his father to fight him, feeling Dawn near, hearing the hiss of her lightsaber, the hiss of all of theirs. Faith was surprised hers was still in her hand, surprised to see she was still swinging it around time and time again to meet red blade with the hand still at her throat. She was pretty sure she wasn't breathing, and looked to Luke to see if Vader had him, too, and there were tears running down his cheeks as he lashed out. Vader wouldn't say anything. They were the ones screaming until, in an instant, her blade and Luke's came around together so that Vader could only meet one and met Faith's, leaving Luke's blade to sear the head cleanly from his shoulders so that it bounced, ridiculous, to the ground.

The body fell.

Faith gasped at the release from her throat, falling to her knees. She took her blade and slashed at the mask over the face, cutting it away to reveal the face underneath.

The Dark Side thick in the air.

She saw the face and threw up.

* * *

"Faith?" Luke and Dawn hit the ground next to her. "Faith, are you—?"

"Buffy…."

Dawn put a hand on her shoulder. "She's back where you told her to stay. She didn't come."

"No!" Faith rolled the head in her hands and thrust it up so they could see. "Buffy!"

Luke's face went pale. "That's not…." His fingers trembled as he reached out to touch it.

Faith spun the head back around, seeing again the dead slayer's eyes staring back at her. She smeared the spittle off her chin with the back of her hand. "What do you mean 'not'—"

"Not what? It's just a shell." Dawn leaned around Faith to look herself. "I don't get it. There's nothing there. How could you have been fighting—?"

Faith's throat hurt. Her head hurt. Closed her eyes for a minute as she put the head down, then opened them again, trying to take a deep breath. "Okay, I see Buffy in there. Dawn, what do you see?"

"Nothing?" Looking from Luke to Faith and back again.

"Luke?"

He couldn't stop staring. "Myself." Dawn sucked in a breath.

"Fuck." Faith blew one out. "It's not real."

Luke's eyes flicked up to hers. "Then what were we fighting?"

Faith stood up, still looking down at the mask blown apart. She clipped the lightsaber back to her belt. "That's what I intend to ask Yoda."

Luke stood up next to her, helping Dawn to her feet. "And why do I feel like we didn't win?"

Faith's eyes met his, then, in the dark. She didn't have anything to say to that. They headed back out in silence, each in their own thoughts. Cave things made sounds around them. The air still tasted bitter and heavy. Even the swamp outside had to be better than this. They all wanted to get there.

But when they got outside, they found Buffy, lightsaber drawn.

And Boba Fett, collar in hand, blaster pointed square at her chest.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Thanks for still reading!

* * *

"Buffy!" As soon as Dawn and Luke opened their mouths, their lightsabers were lit and ready, even if they themselves were frozen in place, aware they could hardly make it before the blaster's pulse would find Buffy's chest.

"B…." Faith couldn't get beyond the letter, and the head of that same blonde slayer she'd just seen rolling at her feet.

Dead.

"B…." But here was Buffy again, breathing. Faith could see her chest heaving in great, irregular gasps as she forgot to breathe and then remembered again. Faith realized her own held breath, and every instinct in her gut that said to act. She could imagine her lightsaber slicing through the air. Slicing. Like Luke's had sliced through his father's neck and left a rolling head to mock her. Not real.

A test.

Her brain seemed too slow in coming around to the idea. A test. Another fucking test. And, if Faith had anything to say about it, one that Buffy wasn't going to fail.

She felt herself surging forward, hearing the far-off protests from Dawn and Luke, now watching her with open mouths. She thought that they must be right, and what was she thinking, and could it be they really cared if she died right now, and why hadn't Boba Fett fired already? She would've fired, if she were him.

And then she was there, sliding in between Buffy's lightsaber and the bounty hunter's blaster and slave collar. Faith's slayer climbed up her throat, screaming that she was facing the wrong way. That Boba Fett was behind her.

"Don't!" Faith didn't know where she found the voice for it. Buffy's lightsaber was inches from her chest. Somewhere, Luke yelled his incredulity and warning and Buffy's slayer growled her displeasure at being separated from her revenge. "B…." Faith fought to capture the other girl's eyes, hands out in the universal "don't shoot!" "Buffy!" At the full name, Buffy's eyes snapped to hers.

Luke's "Faith…." wondered if she knew what she was doing, and then hesitated enough to doubt his own assessment of good and evil and trust hers.

Not that Faith didn't wonder herself if _she_ knew what she was doing, facing towards all the rage and heat pouring off the blonde. She kept her weapon down. Buffy had her lightsaber up, looking around Faith.

"Buffy, it's a test." Faith saw the hurt and the anger in the other girl's eyes. Three years of hell she only know the barest outlines of. She saw it and knew Buffy wanted nothing more than for Faith to get out of the way. "That's what Vader was for us. That's what Boba Fett is for you." Holding her voice steady. "What you're gonna do with all that shit inside you…that's what they want to know."

"But he's right there!" Buffy gestured with the weapon she still hadn't lowered.

And damn if Faith didn't see why Buffy thought Boba Fett was real. He fucking _felt _real to her, too. Faith forced herself not to flinch at the blaster pointed at her back, and stumbled over where to begin again because she was failing to convince herself here.

"Buffy, she's right."

Faith and Buffy turned at the same time, with the same confusion. Dawn had done her own weighing and stepped up to Faith's shoulder, placing a hand over her sister's white fist, knowing she had to keep talking.

"She's right. The Vader in there had Luke's head, or yours…."

Faith had to step in. "Not that I meant to cut your head off, B, it was just—"

Buffy's eyes flicked from her sister to her sometime-lover. "Wait, who did what to my head?"

Luke tried to clarify. "It was your head, but it wasn't you."

Dawn squeezed her hand. "And it wasn't really Luke's either. It was a test to see how he'd deal with his father-" She caught the young man's wince. "-how he'd deal with Vader. Which is the point Faith was trying to make."

"That _was_ my point."

"Your point is that it wasn't my head?"

"No, that _that_ isn't Boba Fett!" Faith jerked a thumb at the armed bounty hunter behind her. She didn't quite trust herself not to slice him to bits if she turned around, so she stayed facing where she was.

Dawn nodded. "He's a test."

"And killing him means I ace it?" Buffy raised a hopeful eyebrow.

"Nope. Big F on the report card." Faith shook her head and kicked herself for not listening to Dawn back in the cave. Like it made sense for Vader to be here, in the middle of the Dagobah swamp. She should've seen that one coming.

"But if he's not real, then it wouldn't hurt to kill him just to make sure, right?" Buffy's voice was light, but her eyes measured that a simple slice right through the bounty hunter's hand would make the blaster fall, and then she would pivot, turning around to come down again with an overhead swing straight down into that green and black helmet where the light of her blade was now reflected. If he wasn't real, what would it hurt, anyway? She'd spent the last three years on Tatooine killing things she half believed were already dead in hell, like her.

Faith felt the tension still bunching in her shoulders at her own desire to turn and cut the enemy down. The forest around them was still choked with the Dark Side. "You _know_ tests, B. They _expect_ us to fail."

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment, wondering what it would be like, for once, to meet expectations. Wondering what her lifelong defiance of that had gotten her. On her sixteenth birthday, Giles had stuck her full of drugs for the Council because they wanted her to fail. Mom got hurt. Now she was just dead. And Buffy'd jumped off a tower in Sunnydale. She opened her eyes again, trying to look at Faith and Dawn, instead of the threat behind them.

After all, they wouldn't be standing there if Boba Fett was real, would she?

The breath she let out turned into a half-yell, half-scream, as she turned and threw the lightsaber into the forest. Its blade tumbled end over end, branches falling in its wake, until its metal hilt clanged into a thick trunk and it dropped down into the mud, blade buzzing without a target.

Buffy stared at it. They all stared at it. One corner of Buffy's mouth tipped up. "You know, if this was a movie, it would've stuck in the tree."

Faith let out a breath. "Gonna have to work on your angry gestures, B."

"But maybe from a Jedi standpoint that's not so bad?" Buffy looked over at the younger slayer, and, in spite of her light tone, was glad of Dawn and Faith's hands on either arm as she swayed on her feet. Boba Fett was still there, and she wasn't going to look at him. Faith said he wasn't real. Buffy's hands was cold. "Like maybe Yoda wouldn't be so big on the angry gestures for Jedi like—?"

"Buffy! Boba Fett!"

The blonde started at her name and jerked around to see Willow holding the weapon Buffy'd thrown aside, glaring at the bounty hunter from between that borrowed blade and her own lit one. Buffy whirled back to Boba Fett, as if she'd forgotten she'd just reconciled herself to what he was, hand reaching for a weapon it no longer had. Faith could see the panic climbing into her eyes again and hurried, waving her arms at Willow.

"Red, no, don't!"

"Faith, what's the matter with you? It's Boba Fett!"

"No, it's not!" Dawn held on to her sister, half-restraint, half-support, trying to meet Willow's unbelieving stare. "Really!"

"Okay, now wait just a minute. It really looks like—"

Faith's brow furrowed. "And weren't you supposed to be staying with Yoda?"

"_He's_ the one who said there was danger out _here_!" She gestured with her blades at the very familiar shape of evil in their midst, exasperated that she was the only one looking at him. "And, wow, lo and behold…."

"Well, what if the danger's really back there and you just left him!"

"I sure as heck didn't see Boba Fett back there!"

"Look, you're just gonna have to trust me on him—" Seeing Willow's face. "Or trust Dawn, whatever…she's the only one who hasn't managed to cut the head offa someone they know yet."

"What?" A few octaves higher.

Dawn shook her head. "Long story."

Willow didn't know who to look at: Dawn, Faith, Luke, or Buffy, who was walking towards her. "But what about what Yoda said about danger…." She trailed off as Buffy came close, and handed the blonde back her lightsaber.

Faith watched. "Got a few questions for the green dude myself."

Buffy looked at the glowing blade of her weapon for a minute. "Tests suck."

Dawn stepped after her sister and took her hand, sharing a look with Faith over Buffy's head as she spoke. "But you passed. You didn't give in."

The blonde's mouth smiled at Dawn, squeezing her hand. She took her lightsaber and stuck it end first into an old tree. "See," Stepping aside with a flourish. "Success!"

Willow was the only one of them looking back at Boba Fett, still standing there in the forest's gloom, while the rest of them started back towards the camp. "Are we just gonna…."

"Yes." Faith pulled Buffy's lightsaber back out of the tree.

* * *

"You could've prepared us!" Luke's face was still tight from the earlier fight with Vader. Or the apparition of Vader, or whatever.

"These days I have. Knew enough, you did."

They had found him in the hut where Willow had left him. Coming into the campsite, Faith could've imagined him not being there at all, imagined him having disappeared into his brown robes like Obiwan did. But he was still there, amazingly enough.

"She learned."

Faith looked up to find a crooked finger pointing at her. "After screwin' it up." Buffy's decapitated head.

Luke sat hunched on the stool, poking at the pot on the fire. "I know. We shouldn't have lashed out in anger…."

"Attacked first you did. Desperate, you were, for your father to fight."

"And I ended up fighting myself, I know, I know."

"What you brought with you, yes."

Faith wondered for a moment what that said about her seeing Buffy's severed head under that black helmet. And then she decided she'd rather not think about that right then. "So, moral of the story is, if you see bad dude who's standing there all taunting, just say no?"

Buffy bumped her shoulder against Faith's. "You were channeling the immortal wisdom of Nancy Reagan when you stopped me?"

Faith shrugged. "That was Dawn, too."

"And you."

Luke was still trying to puzzle it out. "So I brought the Dark Side there?"

"There it was already. You brought yourself. And fear."

Luke looked into the fire for a moment. "Is it the future?"

The Jedi Master coughed into his robe were he lay. "Unclear, it is."

Dawn left her hand on Luke's arm, but her eyes flicked back to Yoda. "But, wait, I didn't see anything. What kind of a future is that?"

Yoda shook his head, almost overcome by another round of coughing. "Unclear, unclear."

"Doesn't seem as bad, for my money." Faith looked away from the fire to smile a little at the younger Summers. "Like at least you didn't see anything bad."

Buffy smiled, too, looking between Faith and Dawn. "And both of you helped me do the right thing."

Faith looked at her, wanting to believe that at least one of them – maybe both? – could be Jedi here, could fight a fight they could feel good about.

Willow's brow furrowed. "But there was supposed to be something dangerous out there. That's why you sent me after them."

"Sent you, I did not." He saw Willow's mouth open in protest. "But danger there was."

"Right. The danger we brought, which was apparently invisible for me—" Dawn nodded at Yoda as if to say they'd already learned these lessons and were ready for the more advanced coursework.

"And that which hunted her."

"Well, and that, sure…wait, what?" Dawn stopped, noticed Yoda's finger pointing at Buffy, which was noticed simultaneously by everyone else in the room, all of whom suddenly felt the need to stand up until the room was very crowded with hunched figures all saying "What?" at the same time.

"What?"

And then it was a cacophony of more "What?" and "What the fuck?" and "Boba Fett!" as they scrambled back out of the cramped hut into the area outside, where they could all stand up straight, and did so, turning from one direction to another, lightsabers out like a bristling neon porcupine.

Yoda followed slowly after with his cane, watching all of his students in a bunch in the clearing.

"Here, he is not."

Buffy took the lightsaber Faith tossed back to her. "That's what you said last time!" She lit it up and glared at the forest around her, hands trembling. "I knew he was real!"

But Faith caught her arm and, when those wide eyes swung around to meet hers, pointed at Yoda, who was pointing in turn at the disappearing afterburners of a ship off in the distance.

"Coward!" Buffy yelled at the canopy and the sky beyond, shaking her lightsaber, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. The ship kept going.

Faith felt the burn of bile in her throat again. Her slayer didn't want to turn the lightsaber off because it knew it had been right all along and now it really wanted to kill something.

The redhead burned with her own rage, turning from Buffy's tears to Yoda to the ship back to Yoda. "If you would just talk like everyone else, this wouldn't have happened!"

Faith leapt at that one. Some target, any target. "Damn straight! B goes and passes the test and then you fuckin' change the subject! How's that fair? Buffy did what you wanted her to—"

"What _you_ wanted." He jabbed a finger at her for emphasis.

Luke rubbed his hand back through his hair. "Well, of course Faith wanted Buffy to do what a Jedi would do. We're all trying—"

But Yoda cut him off, too. "Are you?" He pointed his stick. "Striking at the father you are not prepared to face." Turning from Luke's red face to find Faith. "And you. Unprepared, you are, to give up what _you_ want."

Faith's mouth had come open, but she snapped it shut again, glancing quickly at Buffy, who was watching her, too, still breathing heavily, her lightsaber now down, limp, next to her. Not like Faith could deny wanting: Buffy, Buffy to be a Jedi, Buffy to stay here with her as a Jedi. There was a theme there. She just couldn't make herself think those things were wrong, as much as she tried not to care. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dawn catch the exchange between her and Buffy and blink. A glance the other direction told her Willow was still staring between Buffy and the now-gone bounty hunter, the danger she had recognized and now could do nothing about.

Yoda was still speaking, shaking his head. "The ways of a Jedi, these are not."

Luke sank down on a log. Willow stared at Buffy. Buffy looked at Faith. Faith just stood there, unable to move.

Dawn looked at them all and then back at Yoda. "Fat lot of good your way's doing here in the swamp time forgot." She shut her lightsaber off. "I mean, you sit here and tell Faith and Luke not to feel. Maybe that's easy when you live here." She nodded at the sky. "But the battle's out there."

"Inside you, it is."

"Well, then, I'm not sure if we just won or lost or tied or what, but the only reason my sister didn't get shot and Faith and I didn't get shot in the back is because Boba Fett decided it would be more fun not to. Maybe we should go knight him Jedi for his restraint."

"That way, he does not seek."

"Duh."

"If they're not going to play by the rules, why should we?" Buffy's voice was hoarse. It was a question that came out like a statement, but, looking at Faith, she wondered if it was still a question after all. Faith wanted to stay here and be a Jedi. And Faith wanted her to be a Jedi. Maybe wanted her to stay, too.

Yoda looked into the blonde slayer's eyes, older than her years. He saw their red rims, the resolve they were working on, their fear, their anger. "No rules the Dark Side has."

Willow sniffed, arms crossed. "Well, that training would have to be quicker."

Yoda sighed, and looked out at the sky were the bounty hunter had disappeared. "Train you no more here, I can." He tapped his cane absently on the ground. "To your friends, we must."

Luke sat up. "Why? Did you see something?"

Faith was right on the heels of that. "Is Leia okay?" She tried to stretch out through the Force to find that familiar thread on another world, but it was hard to concentrate. Surely she would've felt something….

Yoda raised an eyebrow at them. "Told me, did you not, the battle is out there?"

"And you're coming?"

At Dawn's words, they all looked at the diminutive Jedi Master, unable to imagine him outside of this world of forests and primitive life, but he was already making his way back to his hut, ducking inside to get what he would need to leave.

* * *

"It's okay."

"Huh?"

"You know, you and Buffy."

Faith glanced up at Dawn. The cockpit was lit by only the computer displays and the streaks of stars as they sped through hyperspace. So she had picked up on that.

"To what do I owe the honor?"

Dawn sank down into the chair beside her. "You don't have to be rude. I'm just trying to tell you that I don't care."

"That's not really an endorsement." Faith chuckled. "Actually, all things considered, maybe it is."

Dawn had to smile, too. "I think I meant it as one, surprising as that sounds. Not that you need my approval or anything but…." She picked at the edge of the throttle bar. "I don't know what she's been through."

"I don't want to hurt her anymore."

"Thanks." Dawn smiled at her again in the semi-darkness. "I didn't want to have to ask."

"But you would have."

"I would have." Dawn agreed. "I'm just sort of surprised."

"You and me both.

They sat in silence with that for a moment, watching the funnel of space they were plunging into.

Then, Dawn: "Do you suppose it's true?" Seeing Faith's eyebrow. "About being a Jedi and having feelings for someone?"

Somewhere else in the ship, Buffy was asleep, Luke was asleep.

"S'what the green guy says."

"But you don't believe it?"

"Doesn't feel right."

Dawn nodded. "That's what I thought."

More silence. More stars. Faith slapped her hands down on the arms of her chair. "Well, you wanna stay and wait for Luke or you want me to?" She had already half-pushed herself up, knowing what the answer would be.

"I'll do it."

"He said just watch for anything blinking red."

"Seems obvious."

Faith nodded and caught younger Summers' eyes and the answering nod before ducking through the cockpit door and heading through the cramped quarters to find where Buffy was sleeping.


	28. Chapter 28

A/R: Under a month for this one. Hot damn!

* * *

It was not a big ship, and not one particularly designed for passenger comfort. Faith found Buffy in a small room in the center, sleeping on a bench in the glow of readouts from a host of electronics she didn't understand. Buffy's tunic was wrapped around her once again. She was curled on her side. Her brow had the slightest furrow.

Yoda was there, leaning back against a wall, watching Willow from half-lidded eyes.

Willow sat on the bench next to Buffy, glancing up at Faith when she came in. Between them, several identical, metal spheres hissed around and over Willow and over the sleeping blonde.

Faith's brow furrowed. "Didn't know we had more of those." She'd worked with just the one training remote before. And now Willow was able to manage multiple at once? Without a weapon. "And, what, Yoda's got you bending back the blasts with your mind?" Yoda may not look like he was teaching anything right now, but that was the thing about teachers, you couldn't ever tell. Faith found the familiar metal hilt in her hand, willing to pit her old fashioned skills against the redhead's mental ones.

"Don't worry," Willow was whispering, her hand on Faith's wrist to keep the weapon lowered. "I don't have it in firing mode now. And only one of them is really here." She waved a hand at the spheres in the air. "It's more like we can just see the others, but they're not really _here_ here."

Faith wasn't sure it would've made any more sense spoken at regular volume. Actually, she was sure it wouldn't.

"Huh?"

The redhead glanced down as Buffy stirred restlessly in her sleep and then whispered even more softly. "It's physics." As if that cleared it up. "And a little bit of the Force, too." She cut her eyes in Yoda's direction, clearing her throat. "Anyway, this one is the one in _this_ world." She tapped with her finger at the sphere right in front of her. "But a whole bunch of them exist in alternate universes where someone ate bran flakes instead of cornflakes or decided to turn left rather than right or was allowed to shoot Boba Fett instead of letting him…."

"Is there a point to this?" That last had had some sting to it.

The redhead started again, glad to see she'd made her point. She had been right about that, after all. "So, anyway, I'm trying see if I can follow the Force to find them in the alternate universes." Seeing Faith's still-raised eyebrow. "You know, like Sunnydale." She sighed, frowning now at the other floating balls of metal. "But I can't get the wormholes stable enough to actually _bring_ them here, just to show where they would be if I _could_ get them here, to show they _do _exist, which I already _knew_…." One of the spheres hovered right over Buffy's head. "Dawn's blood might make it easier, but I'm trying to see…." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm just not good enough with the Force yet, I guess. It's like when all you have is a chiclet and you can only make a little bubble that pops against your lips before it can get…."

"Gah!"

Willow and Faith both jumped. Even Yoda made a sound. A now-very-awake Buffy was half-sitting up, staring cross-eyed at the metal object right over her. She limbo-ed underneath it and came up standing next to the bench, staring at the sphere and then between Willow and Yoda and Faith. Seeing the lightsaber in the latter's hand, she pulled out and lit up her own and, in a second, had sliced one remote neatly in half.

Or she would have, had it been the one present in this universe. As it was, it just made a slight hiss and moved several inches to the left, unperturbed.

"Okaaay." Buffy stared at it. "Someone changed the rules on me."

"Eh, Red's just tryin' to learn to juggle."

Willow rushed over, and her loss of concentration caused the remotes in other universes to fade from view and the one that was actually here to clang to the ground. Buffy jumped again, suddenly without a target. Willow put a hand on her arm. "Don't worry, the wormhole wouldn't have hurt you—"

"_What_ wouldn't have hurt—?"

Willow was still trying to explain, prodding the sphere on the ground with one toe. "And I'm working on something that actually, you know, _works_ as a link."

Buffy looked to Faith for help. Faith just rolled her eyes. "She lost me at worm. You wanna get outta here?"

The blonde nodded, trying to clear the fog of abruptly interrupted sleep from her head. "Yes?"

She had hardly said the word when Faith took her hand. Willow opened her mouth, but Faith was first, staring pointedly at the now-grounded sphere and back at Yoda, who had watched the whole exchange with that same inscrutable gaze. "Don't you have some Force stuff to get better with?" Before the redhead could think of anything to say to that, the two slayers were gone.

* * *

The best they could find was a gunner's compartment at the top of a narrow ladder.

"Well, this is cozy." Buffy leaned back on the instrument panel, almost pressed into the glass that, if you were in battle, would let you see out to what you were shooting. She was still shaking the sleep from her brain.

"You'd rather back with floating ball girl?" Faith set herself on the edge of the chair, looking past Buffy at the space rushing past them.

The blonde shook her head and her hair fell down like a curtain around her face. "No…this is fine." She glanced up at Faith, who was looking a little green. "This is okay, right?"

The younger slayer decided maybe looking out at the disappearing stars was not the best thing for her stomach. She popped up off the end of the chair and found herself only inches from Buffy's nose. "Um, look, do you mind…?" She indicated the switch with two fingers.

Buffy made herself not smile at the thought of Faith as having a delicate stomach. She squeezed by, ending up for a moment with Faith's leg in between her own. Okay, now she was lightheaded. She probably should've kept going, but she stayed there and picked up Faith's hand, turning it palm-up. She focused on the twin ropes of tendon there and, right where they disappeared into Faith's palm, she pressed the ball of her thumb.

Faith jumped.

"That didn't hurt, did it?" Buffy looked back down at her thumb, the other fingers curling around to hold Faith's hand in hers. And while she was doing that, for the moment she wasn't thinking about Boba Fett, or revenge, or anything but the wrist she was holding, that attached to someone she knew as well as she knew herself—which was to say instinctually, like a reflection in a fogged mirror. Yoda had said that Faith wanted something. Wanted it and was unwilling to give it up.

Buffy realized she was still holding Faith's hand and ought to be saying something. "Glamour had this article once about sea-sickness and they said it was some ancient Chinese thing to just press right here…."

"Not that I don't appreciate the small-scale savin', but your hands are freezing."

Buffy let go and looked at her hands and realized that if Faith had felt that warm, she was probably cold by comparison. She tucked her hands into the sleeves of her tunic. "Oh, right. Sorry! Bad circulation. I never really thought about it on Tatooine because it was all hot all the time and…." She trailed off, because maybe Faith did want something else and it wasn't her. Maybe it was being a Jedi, saving the Rebellion. And then what? She watched as Faith hopped up to sit on top of the control panel across from her. "I hope you didn't just sit on the eject button or anything."

Faith eyed the buttons around her. No alarms were going off. "If we hadn't gone flyin' off yet, we're probably alright."

"So…."

Faith watched Buffy. She looked older than she had in the glow of their forest training. And Faith might have gotten it wrong, but she looked a little unsure of herself.

"So…anyway, I just wanted to say Dawn thinks you and me are something."

The blonde blinked. "Something? As in…?" She gestured with a finger between the two of them.

"What's the matter, B? Can't say bring yourself to say it?"

Buffy's brow furrowed. "Hey, I've said! In fact, I seem to remember that, right before everything happened with faux-Vader and real-Boba Fett in the forest, I was telling you about feeling something for you—"

"Feeling something because I might decide to stay here instead of runnin' back to Sunnyhell with you." Faith raised an eyebrow. "Not sure how big that qualifier is."

"Wait, you think I only want you because I can't have you?"

"Wouldn't be the first."

"Except for the fact that you didn't tell me you were planning on staying until _after_ we did the sleeping together thing!"

"You can fuck without feelin' anything."

Buffy's tunic suddenly looked too big for her as she shrank back a little. "Is that…is that what it was with me?" She almost hated herself for even asking this question of Faith, because maybe she was crazy to even think Faith had changed since Sunnydale when they were—

But Faith was simultaneously kicking herself for letting this conversation fall into familiar patterns, when she'd really tried to get Buffy up her to tell her….what? Something that wasn't about fucking without feeling. "Nah, that was Red."

Buffy took a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The stars were going by so fast outside. "So, I'm going to just say this." Her eyes slid over to meet Faith's dark ones in this dark little part of the ship away from everyone else for the moment. "And if I'm off-base here, we can just pretend that I didn't say anything, but…I think I might be falling in love with you, and I think maybe you are, too. I mean, feeling something for me."

Faith's eyes widened a fraction, unable to believe she'd actually seen those words coming out of Buffy's mouth. Love. She reached out a hand to Buffy's tunic and tugged her closer until she was right in front of her. "You say that here." She nodded to the cramped area they were in, where the two of them couldn't have been far apart even if they tried. They weren't really trying. And Faith hadn't denied anything. "But what about out there?" There was a ship full of other people who might have different ideas.

Buffy felt her hands cup the undersides of Faith's thighs, holding on. "Well, apparently Dawn knows. And your head is still attached." One corner of her mouth tipped up, but then she looked straight into Faith's eyes. "Although maybe the question is what you're going to do about the Jedi thing. I know you want that and Yoda says…."

The younger slayer noticed the question was what was _Faith _going to do. She filed it away, her brain not ready to puzzle it out when here was Buffy, only inches away. "If Yoda wants a hero, he'll deal." She slid her hands up underneath Buffy's tunic, taking her hips and pulling her closer still. Her voice dropped into a whisper on its own. "Right now, I want you."

Buffy let herself be pulled in and pulled herself in closer, moving her hands up the backs of Faith's thighs, smiling at the leather and at this moment, when her fingers hit the control panel Faith was sitting on and did a detour to follow the curve of leather instead up to the tops of the legs that were now curling around her. Where they bumped into something hard in one of Faith's pockets.

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Happy to see me?" Her fingers felt in the pocket, enjoying the dilation of Faith's pupils as she did so. Tight leather pulling in sensitive areas. Until those fingers pulled out a half-full vial of eldratz, the same from that rooftop on Tatooine.

Faith froze, her mind doing the cussing quietly inside, blaming itself for leaving that vial there when she could have gotten rid of it somewhere along the way. She watched Buffy—Buffy who had thrown away her own vial in the forests of Dagobah right before she had crawled across that firelit hut to Faith. Buffy who had come face to face with Boba Fett since then. She watched Buffy. Watched as Buffy didn't say a word and pushed the vial back down in Faith's pocket as if she'd just found a penny that had been forgotten in there and might as well stay.

Faith's brow furrowed, one hand reaching up to touch the side of Buffy's shadowed cheek. "Y'alright?"

The older slayer leaned into the touch and closed her eyes. "Here? Why wouldn't I be?" She smiled into the hand. "Maybe you should be the one worried. I don't have a great track record, you know." Lips parted to kiss the palm of Faith's hand, first in the center and then down over the inside of that wrist, the sensitive, thin skin there.

"Pretty sure I'm tough enough to handle it." At least, that's what Faith meant to say. In actuality, she got out something closer to "Pretty sure…handle…" in between gasps at the sensation of those cool lips on her. Faith's hand still under the tunic traveled north to the undercurve of Buffy's breast and then drew a radius to the center's erect nipple, making circles around it as Buffy leaned further in and hummed in the back of her throat. Faith brought that humming mouth up to hers and took a lower lip gently between her teeth. Buffy's hand slid back down to the taut muscles of Faith's thighs, the pockets of her leather pants, sliding up between and then underneath Faith's top while Faith's hand was sliding down to the waistband of Buffy's pants, mouths more insistent as Faith's fingers rushed ahead with the stars outside, finding warmth.

She dipped inside and felt muscles clenching around her, holding her, and her legs pulled Buffy closer and pushed her fingers deeper as both of their mouths were open now against each other, gasping for each other as Buffy's hands found Faith's breasts and held them, thumbs brushing across nipples as the fingers moved inside her and her hips rocked closer and a moan caught in the back of her throat.

The universe saw the gunner's compartment thrust out from the ship, a ready blaster idle for the moment. The stars slid by the flashes of skin exposed inside that small space that was suspended in the much larger space of the swirling galaxy itself: an upturned face, a bit of flesh stretched over a hip bone revealed by the clothing pushed aside, the swell of a breast, a hot tongue, tentative fingers that disappeared inside, cool at first against the fiery hot so that their progress was exquisitely marked, then drawing back to find the underside of a clit and send a shockwave before thrusting deeper again in time to match the thrust of another to match the universe. Dark and light moving within those cramped quarters. A hand pressed against the fogging glass, fingers curling.

* * *

"…_remember hearing his name in Mos Eisley.…with the Black Sun…?"_

"…_Xizor's high up…smuggling…got more money than you can dream…."_

The fragmented voices pulled Faith out of sleep. She was draped across the chair, Buffy lying across her chest. Blinking lights on the console monitored the radio transmissions coming in and going out.

"…_sounds like you two must get along…."_

"_I don't trust him…."_

The radio crackled. Han and Luke.

"…_.don't get why Leia would deal with him if he can't be—"_

Buffy's chest rose and fell. Faith watched her breathe. The stars had resolved themselves back into pinpricks of light. She could still feel the muscles inside of her trembling.

"_Kid, he's into everything….name it. Empire wants…transportation company. They have him carrying parts….building….means he'll have the manifests….Leia says she thinks she about to secure a…."_

"_But you just said….didn't trust him!"_

"…_don't. Wouldn't trust me in that….something strange with Leia…."_

"_Strange how? What's going…?"_

A planet was coming closer. Faith gently shook the sleeping slayer.

"…_talk later…better to come in quietly, though…."_

* * *

They sped down to the surface tucked into the traffic of other ships. Faith and Buffy fit into the back of the cockpit, behind the others who were already looking at the hundreds of other ships, moving quickly here and there, in and out on business. Great transport ships, smaller personal ships, some outfitted for fighting or at least projecting the image of being capable of it, if pressed. Willow glanced around as Buffy came up behind her, briefly at Faith, then back to Buffy, who was absently running her fingers through to clear a few tangles as she watched the strange world outside. Faith thought she recognized some Imperial ships in the crowded airspace. Luke was making an effort to fit them in, taking quick turns around the skyscrapers that studded the planet's surface. Buffy perched on the edge of her sister's seat in the co-pilot spot. Faith met Dawn's eyes over her head and gave a little smile and shrug as if to say _see, nothing bad happened._

Luke dipped them into the cover of a thunderstorm resting over part of the city and wound down towards the base of the tall buildings. It was a planet-sized city. It glowed from outer space with the lights of its business. There were more people and buildings and ships and lights than most of them could ever remember seeing. Even Luke was just a farmboy from Tatooine who had only _heard_ of Coruscant.

Yoda knew it well and said nothing as Luke followed Han's instructions, making for a quieter, darker landing not too far from the Under City, where they would hopefully slip in unnoticed, as so many other things were there.

The ship set down in the shadow between three taller buildings. Advertisements shifted quickly along dark corridors that ran away from the small landing area. They all moved to the gangplank as it lowered, looking for Leia or Han or Lando.

"I do apologize for the necessity of your ignominious landing."

At the base of the lowered walkway, a tall, green man with a razor of raised scales down his back spread his hands wide under his cloak in greeting. His black hair swept back from his face into a knot at the back of his head.

Under his breath, Luke muttered "Prince Xizor." Faith could feel the moist air of the Under City clinging to her clothes and decided that she didn't like the sound of ignominious, no matter what it meant.

Leia stood beside Xizor, diminutive by comparison, clad more like the bounty hunter she had pretended to be in Jabba's palace, than the Rebellion dignitary she was. She was smiling. On the other side, Lando smiled, too, watching the slayers and Jedi and Jedi-in-training step off the ship. Han stood a little bit behind with his arms folded across his chest, next to Chewbacca. They were not smiling.

The prince, meanwhile, was still welcoming them to Coruscant. "Such are the times, I'm afraid. One can never be too careful."


End file.
